This House would ban female genital mutilation.

Female genital mutilation or FGM is often referred to as 'female circumcision'. It refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural, religious or any other non-medical reasons. Four different types of female genital mutilation are known to be performed today, ranging from piercing or stretching of the clitoris and/or labia to their total removal. The most common form of FGM is complete excision of the clitoris and the labia. The most extreme form of FGM, called infibulation, replaces the vulva with a wall of flesh, except for a pencil-size opening¹. After excision, the labia are sewn together and the girl's legs are tied together for around two weeks to prevent her from moving.

The majority of females who have undergone FGM are from twenty-eight African countries, found mostly in the band that stretches from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East coast, and from Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the south. In these regions, it is estimated that more than 92 million girls have undergone this procedure². However, FGM is also practiced in some parts of Asia, the Middle East and increasingly by African immigrants living in Australia, Canada and the USA. As of today, approximately 140 million women have undergone FGM. It is estimated that three million girls each year are likely to be subject to FGM procedures.

Even within cultures where FGM is the accepted norm, the procedure, purpose, and typical age at which FGM is performed varies widely. FGM is practiced by followers of a religious belief as well as non-believers, for sociological reasons as well as mythical ones. FGM is usually carried out with crude medical instruments and without anesthetic, but sometimes may be performed in a health care facility with modern medical amenities. FGM can be performed on infants only a few days old, female children or adolescents, or even on mature women³. The average age for the majority of FGM procedures, however, is between four and fifteen years of age.

Despite these variations of FGM, the World Health Organization is universally opposed to medicalization of all types of FGM. Most human rights organizations in the Western world, Africa and Asia consider FGM a violation of human rights⁴. Proponents of FGM object to the use of the word "mutilation", arguing that it reinforces the idea that this practice is a violation of human rights. They point out that local languages generally use the less judgmental "cutting" to describe the procedure. In 1999 the UN adopted the term "cutting" to avoid demonizing certain cultures, religions and communities, but the practice is still almost universally referred to as "FGM". The proposition will need to prove that a ban would be a justified and effective means of protecting women.

¹ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/
² http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/
³ http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_genitalmutilation.html
⁴ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/