Support H.R.5137 - Girls Protection Act of 2010'

Democrat Joseph Crowley of New York and Republican Mary Bono of California, on April 26, 2010, introduced legislation, Girls Protection Act of 2010, H.R. 5137, on 4/26/2010 that would make it illegal to transport a minor girl living in the United States out of the country for the purpose of female genital mutilation.

The Girls Protection Act of 2010 amends the federal criminal code to impose a fine or five-year prison term, or both, on any U.S. citizen or alien admitted for permanent residence who knowingly transports in foreign commerce a girl under the age of 18 for the purposes of female genital mutilation.

The bill reads:


H.R. 5137
Girls Protection Act of 2010

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide penalties for transporting minors in foreign commerce for the purposes of female genital mutilation.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Girls Protection Act of 2010'.

SEC. 2. TRANSPORT FOR FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION.

Section 116 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(d) Whoever, being a United States citizen or alien admitted for permanent residence in the United States, knowingly transports a person in foreign commerce for the purpose of conduct with regard to that person that would be a violation of subsection (a) if the conduct occurred within the United States, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.'.


END

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h5137ih.txt.pdf


PLEASE EMAIL, or CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM TO IMMEDIATELY VOTE TO PASS H.R.5137 - Girls Protection Act of 2010'

American Association of Pediatricians amend opposition to Female Genital Mutilation

I was listening to the House Judiciary Committee question Attorney General Holder this past week. One of the Representatives questioning him brought up the one common thing shared by the Christmas bomber in Detroit, the Fort Hood mass murderer, and the Times Square bomber. The Rep said in all three terrorist attempts in the last year, one of which was successful, the individuals had ties to radical Islam. Did Holder think that was a factor?

AG Holder stumbled around for an answer as the Representative asked him another 4 or 5 times if that connection with Islam might have been the reason, or one of the reasons, these terrorist did what they did.

All Holder could form as an answer was to say he thought those people who espouse a ... a version of Islam... you say radical Islam... .

The representative finally ended with "You uncomfortable attributing any actions to Islam? Because it sounds like it.”

After 9/11 we, the American people of the U.S, began getting crash courses on Islam and its followers. We had a basic idea of the religion, and as we are generally tolerant of most religions in this country, we bought into thinking we could tolerate Islam. Big mistake. We were lead around by our noses to think that only the radical form of Islam would allow such horrific actions.

In 9 short years we have seen what we thought was just another religion in the World be shown to manifesting itself as something quite different. When are we going to see that the horrific acts commited in country after country that follow Islam are santioned by the teachings and practice of Islam? While the President is working to improve and promote relations with Muslim countries, the Muslim nations want that a global silence on denouncing Islam become law. If the theocracy of countries espousing Islam as their politcal, religious and mundane life hasn't shown us the true reachings of Islam; then how dumb are we?

We really, really need to wake up quick. Their reach has become so wide that the American Association of Pediatricians is suggesting a change in U.S. law to allow Female Genital Mutilation. There is no healthy or medical reason for it. Quite the reverse; it can cause death. Have we become so tolerant that we would lawfully allow girls to be severely mutilated to appease a religion?

The practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), or Clitoridectomies openly continues today in Africa, the Middle East, Indochina, and communities in Asia. Immigrants from these countries have brought the practice with them to Europe and North America. While some romanticize it as a 'rite of passage'; it is mutilation, no matter how you try to spin it. However, it is now being recommended that we extend culturally sensitivity and call it female genital cutting (FGC), This culturally sensitivity recommendation comes from the American Association of Pediatricians. On April 26, the AAP even suggested that laws be changed to allow pediatricians to mutilate girls. They’re not yet advocating full-scale clitoridectomies: just a milder form of child abuse or a less-severe ritual cutting they term as 'nicking'.

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From the AAP:

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM - let's call it what it really is) is illegal and subject to criminal prosecution in several countries, including Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, federal legislation in 1996 criminalized the performance of FGC by practitioners on female infants and children or adolescents younger than 18 years and mandated development of educational programs at the community level and for physicians about the harmful consequences of the practice. Various state laws exist as well.

Some physicians, including pediatricians who work closely with immigrant populations in which FGC is the norm, have voiced concern about the adverse effects of criminalization of the practice on educational efforts.32 These physicians emphasize the significance of a ceremonial ritual in the initiation of the girl or adolescent as a community member and advocate only pricking or incising the clitoral skin as sufficient to satisfy cultural requirements. This is no more of an alteration than ear piercing. A legitimate concern is that parents who are denied the cooperation of a physician will send their girls back to their home country for a much more severe and dangerous procedure or use the services of a non–medically trained person in North America. In some countries in which FGC is common, some progress toward eradication or amelioration has been made by substituting ritual “nicks” for more severe forms.2 In contrast, there is also evidence that medicalizing FGC can prolong the custom among middle-class families (eg, in Egypt)

The option of offering a “ritual nick” is currently precluded by US federal law, which makes criminal any nonmedical procedure performed on the genitals of a female minor.

Most forms of FGC are decidedly harmful, and pediatricians should decline to perform them, even in the absence of any legal constraints. However, the ritual nick suggested by some pediatricians is not physically harmful and is much less extensive than routine newborn male genital cutting. There is reason to believe that offering such a compromise may build trust between hospitals and immigrant communities, save some girls from undergoing disfiguring and lifethreatening procedures in their native countries, and play a role in the eventual eradication of FGC. It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm.

Efforts should be made to use all available educational and counseling resources to dissuade parents from seeking a ritual genital procedure for their daughter. For circumstances in which an infant, child, or adolescent seems to be at risk of FGC, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that its members educate and counsel the family about the detrimental health effects of FGC. Parents should be reminded that performing FGC is illegal and constitutes child abuse in the United States.

It might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm.