LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Female Genital Mutilation on the Rise in the U.S.

UPDATE: I kind of let snarking at the headline run away with me (yeah, it happens) but I should note that the story’s a bit unclear: “More than half a million women and girls in the U.S. are at risk of undergoing FGM in the U.S. or abroad, or have already undergone the procedure, including 166,173 under the age of 18, according to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). Immigration to the U.S. from African and Middle Eastern countries—where the practice of FGM is a deeply entrenched cultural tradition—is the sole factor for the rise in numbers, says Mark Mather, a demographer at PRB who led the data analysis. There has not been an increase in the practice happening in the U.S. itself, he says.”

But then, there’s also this: “Included in the data are girls at risk of being sent back to their family’s origin country to undergo FGM—a practice widely known as ‘vacation cutting’—or having a traditional midwife or cutter sent to perform FGM in the U.S. ” Still not very hopey-changey.