(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Senate has unanimously voted to ban female genital mutilation and charge those who perform the procedure with a felony. Senator Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, says a recent survey indicated five-thousand women and girls IN IOWA were at risk. “This bill criminalizes a violent criminal act against small girls,” Sinclair said. “….This bill matters.”

A version of the bill ready for debate in the HOUSE would establish a lesser penalty for the practice — an aggravated misdemeanor — but Senator Jake Chapman of Adel objected.  “Shame on the House,” Chapman said. “…This practice is horrific. This practice should be classified as torture.”

Female mutilation or cutting is routinely done on girls in countries like Somalia. Some lawmakers have called for spending state money to educate Somali refugees of the risks.  “I imagine if any of us moved to another country where circumcision was against the law, we would want to know about it. Things that are cultural norms in one country are not cultural norms in another.”

That’s Senator Janet Petersen of Des Moines, the leader of Democrats in the Iowa Senate. She voted for the bill, but used the occasion to complain that other bills dealing with gender inequality have languished in the senate. The United Nations estimates more than 200 women and girls around the globe have experienced some form of genital mutilation. In some cultures, women who have NOT undergone such procedures are shunned by prospective husbands.