Female Genital Mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) includes any procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

FGM can result in extreme physical pain, shock, hemorrhage, infection and even death. The procedure can also have a negative life-long impact upon women and girls, including chronic pain and psychological consequences. FGM eliminates sexual pleasure for women and can adversely affect menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth.

FGM crosses religious, ethnic and cultural lines. FGM is not just a problem in other countries. Despite state and federal laws outlawing FGM, girls also go through the procedure in the United States. Girls in the US are also sent abroad over school vacations to be cut, an illegal process known as “vacation cutting.”

Approximately 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide live with the consequences of FGM.1


“Female Genital Mutilation in the United States: Protecting Girls and Women in the United States from FGM and Vacation Cutting.” 

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