Judge Rules Law Banning Female Genital Mutilation Unconstitutional

On Tuesday, Michigan district judge Bernard Friedman declared a law banning female genital mutilation unconstitutional. He argued that Congress lacked authority to implement the law and that only individual states have the power to ban FGM. This ruling could put thousands of young girls at risk, as FGM is shown to have extreme physical, mental, and emotional effects on women. Along with the decision, several charges were dropped against practitioners who had performed the mutilation on girls around the country. The practice is considered a human rights violation by the World Health Organisation, and this heartbreaking ruling furthers the trend of America rewinding the clock on women’s rights.