Reid looks to strengthen genital-mutilation ban

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would make it a crime under U.S. law to take young girls out of the U.S. for the purpose of genital mutilation.

Reid's bill, the Girls' Protection Act, follows up on the successful passage of another Reid bill in 1996 that criminalizes this procedure in the U.S. on girls under the age of 18. But he said that law has what he called a "vacation loophole" that allows female genital mutilation, or FGM, to take place on U.S. girls when they are out of the country.

"While it is difficult to know precisely how many girls in the United States are at risk of being subject to FGM, estimates from various sources suggest that approximately 200,000 women living in the United States have been, or are at risk, of being subject to FGM," Reid said Tuesday. "Enactment of the Girls' Protection Act would help to better protect these girls by serving as a deterrent for those parents who are considering sending their young girls to their home countries to undergo FGM."

Under his bill, S. 1919, transporting women or girls for that purpose would leave them open to fines and up to five years in prison.

Female genital mutilation is recognized around the world as a human-rights violation that nonetheless has been carried out on an estimated 100 million to 140 million girls and women. Reid called the procedure a "harmful cultural ritual with origins in Africa, Asia and the Middle East," and said it has no medical justification.

Reid said estimates from several sources indicate that 200,000 women and girls in the U.S. are or have been at risk of FGM.

---