How Long Until American Pediatricians Are Cutting Off Clitorises?

[Kimstu]

@xtisme

I seriously doubt that we’ll go from a ritualized pin prick (don’t, presumably, by a doctor under anesthesia and in a sterile environment) to full blown clitoridectomies.

Exactly. Frankly, the suggestion that this could happen seems to me as absurd as the idea that doctors would agree to inflict cigarette burns on the children of child abusers, on the grounds that the abusers are going to burn the kids anyway and at least the doctors can ensure that it’s done in a sterile environment with proper medical care afterwards.

Our experience of the American medical profession so far indicates that doctors in general are quite well able to resist incentives to inflict severe injuries on helpless children. Agreeing to perform a **non-**injurious procedure like a ritual clitoral pinprick is not going to somehow cause doctors to end up excising babies’ clitorises.

[Peremensoe]

@Chief_Pedant

In any case what is the “standard” we have now for girls?
…
Is it “no pinpricks in the genital area”? If so, is that a “standard” of some kind or is it simply the absence of a custom?

I’ve never heard any standards at all for this arena;

In the U.S., a standard has been formalized in federal law since 1996.

@United States Code

CHAPTER 7–ASSAULT

Sec. 116. Female genital mutilation

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever knowingly
circumcises, excises, or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia
majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not
attained the age of 18 years shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) A surgical operation is not a violation of this section if the
operation is–
(1) necessary to the health of the person on whom it is
performed, and is performed by a person licensed in the place of its
performance as a medical practitioner; or
(2) performed on a person in labor or who has just given birth
and is performed for medical purposes connected with that labor or
birth by a person licensed in the place it is performed as a medical
practitioner, midwife, or person in training to become such a
practitioner or midwife.
(c) In applying subsection (b)(1), no account shall be taken of the
effect on the person on whom the operation is to be performed of any
belief on the part of that person, or any other person, that the
operation is required as a matter of custom or ritual.

Had the “pinprick” procedure gone forward, I expect there would have been a case somewhere hinging on the precise legal definition of “circumcises”–does it mean any cutting, or is tissue removal essential to the definition?

It seems it won’t be put to the test, however, because the AAP has withdrawn the statement endorsing the “pinprick” cutting.

@Judith S. Palfrey

We retracted the policy because it is important that the world health community understands the AAP is totally opposed to all forms of female genital cutting, both here in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world.

@Soraya Mire

I cried and told them how grateful I am. Thank you for understanding us survivors and hearing our voices.

Mire (a Somali survivor of severe FGM) believed that endorsing the “pinprick” procedure in the United States would give tacit encouragement for some parents who wished to send girls to Africa for more severe procedures, rather than merely giving them a “harmless” surgical alternative here. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) have introduced a bill amending the 1996 law which would criminalize the sending of girls overseas for this purpose, but that has not been enacted to date.

[Beware_of_Doug]

I misread this as How Long Until American Presidents Are Cutting Off Clitorises?

I need to go back to bed, and back on my head meds.