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Genital Cutting Found to Increase Maternal, Child Death
2006-06-21

The June 3 issue of The Lancet, the British medical journal, published the first large study on the effects of female genital cutting.

It found that the procedure has deadly consequences when the women give birth, raising by more than 50 percent the likelihood that the woman or her baby will die. The New York Times June 2 story cited experts of the World Health Organization Study Group on Female Genital Mutilation and Obstetrical Outcome as warning, "Reliable evidence about its harmful effects, especially on reproduction, should contribute to the abandonment of the practice." While rights groups have long campaigned against genital cutting as a rights issue, the study provides the first conclusive medical evidence of long-term physical harm, moving the debate further into the public health arena. Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, said, "Finally we have data to prove what health workers have long known: that female genital mutilation is a health issue, a killer of women and children, as well as a human rights issue." She added, "This should greatly help advocates overcome arguments that genital mutilation is an untouchable cultural practice."

Read: The Lancet http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606688053/fulltext

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