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Thread: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

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  1. #1
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    Default Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/...-girls-at-risk

    A historic ruling that declared unconstitutional a US law banning female genital mutilation (FGM), and dropped key charges against practitioners was an “outrageous” blow to the rights of tens of thousands of girls at risk of the abuse, according to campaigners.
    US law banning female genital mutilation declared unconstitutional




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    US district judge Bernard Friedman, in Michigan, ruled on Tuesday that Congress lacked authority, under the commerce clause of the US constitution, to adopt the 1996 law and that the power to outlaw FGM lay with individual states. “As despicable as this practice may be, it is essentially a criminal assault,” Friedman wrote, in a ruling late on Tuesday. Congress had “overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM”, as it had no demonstrated effect on interstate commerce, he said.
    The decision, in the first federal case to involve FGM, dismissed the main charges in a case against Jumiana Nagarwala, a doctor who performed the procedure on nine girls, aged 7-13, from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota at another doctor’s clinic in Livonia, on the outskirts of Detroit. The prosecution said she may have performed the procedure on as many as 100 girls. Four of the eight defendants, including three of the four mothers accused of subjecting their daughters to the procedure, were dismissed in the case. The defendants are members of a small Muslim Dawoodi Bohra community. The doctors faced lengthy prison sentences on conspiracy charges.
    “While the rest of the world is moving forwards on FGM, the US is moving backwards,” Shelby Quast, American director of the international campaign group for women’s and girls’ rights, Equality Now, told the Guardian on Wednesday.
    A spokesman for the US attorney in Detroit said the government would review the ruling before deciding on whether to appeal.
    FGM is a common practice among many northern and southern African countries, but it is banned or criminalised by at least 59 countries and several international treaties. It is considered a human rights violation by the World Health Organisation. It typically involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and is used to control the sexuality of women and girls.

    Campaigners said the ruling dealt a heavy blow to the rights of women and girls and could effectively turn the 23 US states that do not have anti-FGM laws into “destination states” for cutting.
    They say it will affect tens of thousands of girls at risk of the abuse across the US. A study by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control estimated that 513,000 women and girls across the US were at risk or have been subjected to FGM.
    International campaign group Equality Now described the ruling as a “federal blessing” on FGM.
    Quastsaid: “What it really shows is that girls are not being prioritised. I have had numerous calls from survivors’ groups with people in tears. The message to women and girls is that, when survivors are finally coming forward, sharing their stories, they are being completely disregarded…
    While the rest of the world is moving forwards on FGM, the US is moving backwards.”



    Well this is interesting. USA accuses other countries for practising FGM but is seems that you can go in USA and practise FGM legally.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Short answer:
    Friedman
    long answer:
    If you make FGM illegal, then you got to question why MGM isn't illegal as well. And there's a certain ethnoreligious group that runs this country that very much does not want that.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    So when do we get to call USA the Caliphate of Americastan?

    The UK draws a distinction between circumcion and FGM making the latter ilegal.

    So, Sharia law in the USA now?

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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by 95thrifleman View Post
    .. when do we get to call USA the Caliphate of Americastan?

    Easy answer: when the USA will put in jail American citizens for their own political views and when the USA will adopt Sharia Law as parallel legislative system, as it currently happens in the British Caliphate.

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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by 95thrifleman View Post
    So when do we get to call USA the Caliphate of Americastan?

    The UK draws a distinction between circumcion and FGM making the latter ilegal.

    So, Sharia law in the USA now?
    Actually, according to Talmudic law, israelis are obligated to circumcise their slaves. Looking at American foreign policy, its not too surprising that most of us are cut in that case.

    https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.137b.8?lang=bi

  6. #6

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Yeah, it shouldn't be surprising given how popular male genital mutilation is in America.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrets54 View Post
    Yeah, it shouldn't be surprising given how popular male genital mutilation is in America.
    How popular is it?
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by PointOfViewGun View Post
    How popular is it?
    About 80% of American males have mutilated genitals.

    But anyway, shouldn't genital mutilation in general be considered assault or at least child abuse, regardless of specific congressional declarations?
    Last edited by Himster; November 23, 2018 at 05:46 AM.
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Himster View Post
    About 80% of American males have mutilated genitals.

    But anyway, shouldn't genital mutilation in general be considered assault or at least child abuse, regardless of specific congressional declarations?
    80% of US citizens have the tip of their penis cut off? Citation needed.
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  10. #10
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by PointOfViewGun View Post
    80% of US citizens have the tip of their penis cut off? Citation needed.
    Here.
    The number given is an average of a limited age spectrum.

    What bothers me with this is that there are medical reasons for circumcision but there are no similar reasons for FGM: the judge failed(?) to make the nuance.

    Additionally, my natural instinct to seek out potential monetary incentives for litigations like this has yielded confounding results:

    One would expect that the profits and corresponding tax revenues from labiaplasty, the fastest growing cosmetic intervention for women (in the USA), would be a motive for outlawing FGM so as to have a larger pool of clientele in the years to come.
    The counter argument to this would be that girls coming from families that would have FGM performed on them, are far less likely to be allowed the means to afford labiaplasty in their twenties.

    Then again there are the well entrenched pressure groups pushing against both FGM and labioplasty.

    And there is always Caduet's comment about "a certain ethnoreligious group" that cannot be called by name for fear of accusations of antisemitism.
    Last edited by paleologos; November 23, 2018 at 07:27 AM.

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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Himster View Post
    But anyway, shouldn't genital mutilation in general be considered assault or at least child abuse, regardless of specific congressional declarations?
    But so is introducing religion to uneducated human kids. Where do we draw the line of how much parents can decide for their children? I say we should have a say of when and where to be born!

  12. #12

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrets54 View Post
    Yeah, it shouldn't be surprising given how popular male genital mutilation is in America.
    Must be raining frogs, because I agree with you.
    Both practices are barbaric. If one has to mutilate his genitals to please a mythological creature, one can do that making such a decision once becoming an adult. Both male and female circumcision of children is uncivilized, immoral and should be illegal.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Actually, it is illegal on the State level, it just can't be illegal on the Federal level, just like any other localized crime. It's an issue of federalism. Michigan already imposes stronger penalties than the federal government does. I'd prefer execution, though These failed human beings are a plague on the country.
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    In most states legend. 23 states don't have laws on FGM. It's likely though they could enact them.in the coming years because of this ruling.
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Vanoi View Post
    In most states legend. 23 states don't have laws on FGM. It's likely though they could enact them.in the coming years because of this ruling.
    Let me guess, one of them is Washington.

    Next thing you know they will have an FGM ranch there like the infamous "stallioned to death" ranch.

    The US certainly has a challenge with the strong States Rights tradition supported by the constitution.
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  16. #16

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    FGM is probably still illegal in those 23 states, but it might incur a lesser penalty.

    https://mic.com/articles/182161/24-s...eeds-to-change

    The Centers for Disease Control estimate that approximately 513,000 girls are at risk for genital cutting in the United States. Because the procedure is illegal on a federal level, AHA Foundation Senior Director Amanda Parker said experts assume most procedures are done discreetly in basements or other unprofessional environments by family members and community practitioners.

    Lack of state laws against FGM often results in lesser sentences

    While the United States’ federal legislation may appear sufficient on the surface, Parker explained that in states without their own laws, FGM allegations often get swept under the rug. In fact, the Michigan doctor’s case represents the very first time a federal FGM prosecution has taken place in the United States in the law’s 21 years, the Washington Post reported.

    According to Parker, this is largely because prosecutors often defer to state laws when charging a crime, rather than abiding by federal legislation. In states with their own laws related to cutting, this can lead to a criminal FGM state prosecution. But in states that solely follow the federal law, she said FGM typically gets categorized as child abuse, assault or other charges, which frequently results in lesser sentences.

    “That’s one reason that state legislation is important,” Parker said in an interview with Mic. “It gives prosecutors the tools that they need to really fight this.”
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  17. #17
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    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Nobody cuts off the glans of the penis on purpose.
    Himster was referring to circumcision.
    Last edited by paleologos; November 23, 2018 at 07:32 AM.

  18. #18

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Himster View Post
    Is your foreskin situated somewhere other than the tip?
    Around the tip, hence, its not the tip.


    Quote Originally Posted by paleologos View Post
    Nobody cuts off the glans of the penis on purpose.
    Himster was referring to circumcision.
    Given that FGM is about removing the clitoral glans you'd need to remove the tip of the penis to present a comparable act. For it to be genital mutilation you require more than what is normally done during a male circumcision. It's not really my problem if people convolute multiple concepts to create a defensible position.
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  19. #19

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by PointOfViewGun View Post
    Given that FGM is about removing the clitoral glans [...]
    Wrong. There are several modalities, but you know it already, dontcha?


  20. #20

    Default Re: Court decides: FGM is legal in USA

    Quote Originally Posted by Yayattasa View Post
    Wrong. There are several modalities, but you know it already, dontcha?
    I guess you don't know that all types of FGM procedures do remove the clitoral. The degrees of severity goes upward from that, not the other way around...
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