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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | February 19, 2013 02:34 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Thomas P. Murt |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Female Mutilation (Prior HB 1511) |
| I am reintroducing legislation (Prior HB 1511) that would define and prohibit the act of mutilation of female genitalia in Pennsylvania by making it a misdemeanor of the first degree. Female mutilation is a term used for a number of cultural practices that involve the partial or total cutting of female genitals. Female mutilation can be performed as early as infancy and as late as age thirty. However, most commonly, girls experience mutilation between four and twelve years of age. The origins of this practice remain unclear. Female mutilation violates a number of human rights of women and girls. Since female mutilation involves the removal of healthy sexual organs without medical necessity and is usually performed on adolescents and girls, often with harmful physical and psychological consequences, it violates the rights to non-discrimination, health, and bodily integrity. Although female mutilation is not undertaken with the intention of inflicting harm, its damaging physical, sexual, and psychological effects make it an act of violence against women and children. Female mutilation has increasingly been the subject of legislative activity both in African countries in which it has traditionally been practiced and in nations where African immigrants have settled. As have other legislatures around the world, the U.S. Congress and a number of state legislatures have enacted statutes penalizing the practice and supporting the global movement to abandon female mutilation. My legislation follows suit by prohibiting the practice within our Commonwealth. If you have any questions regarding this piece of legislation, please call my office at 787-6886. |
Introduced as HB1018