BILL NUMBER: AB 2125 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 790
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 23, 1996
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 22, 1996
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 1996
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 23, 1996
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 19, 1996
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 11, 1996
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 20, 1996
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 1996
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 6, 1996
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Figueroa and Cunneen
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Archie-Hudson)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alby, Alpert, Baldwin, Boland,
Bowen, Granlund, House, Katz, Knox, Kuehl, Lee, Willard Murray,
Napolitano, Rainey, Rogan, Sweeney, Thompson, and Vasconcellos)
(Principal coauthor: Senator Kopp)
(Coauthors: Senators Costa, Johnson, Leonard, Marks, O'Connell,
Polanco, Solis, and Watson)
FEBRUARY 1, 1996
An act to add Article 8 (commencing with Section 124170) to
Chapter 3 of Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code,
and to add Section 273.4 to the Penal Code, relating to female
genital mutilation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2125, Figueroa. Female genital mutilation.
(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Health Services
to maintain a program of maternal and child health.
This bill would require the State Department of Health Services,
in consultation with the State Department of Social Services and the
appropriate federal agency or department, to establish and implement
appropriate education, preventative, and outreach activities,
focusing on new immigrant populations that traditionally practice
female genital mutilation.
(2) Under existing law, any person who, under circumstances or
conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, willfully
causes or permits a child to suffer, or inflicts on a child
unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or having the care
or custody of a child, willfully causes or permits the person or
health of the child to be injured, or willfully causes or permits the
child to be placed in such a situation that its person or health is
endangered, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not
exceeding one year, or in the state prison for 2, 4, or 6 years.
This bill would provide that a person who commits a felony
violation of the above provision by an act of female genital
mutilation, as defined, shall be punished by an additional term of
imprisonment in the state prison for one year, in addition and
consecutive to any punishment prescribed by the above provision.
(3) The bill would make legislative findings and declarations.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"California State Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act."
SEC. 2. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Female genital mutilation is an extreme form of child abuse
and a violation of women's basic human rights. Female genital
mutilation is a medically unnecessary modification of the female
genitalia which typically occurs at about seven years of age, but is
known to be practiced on girls any time between infancy and puberty.
Female genital mutilation involves the excision of a young girl's
clitoris and other parts of the external genitalia. The most extreme
form of this mutilation, known as infibulation, also involves the
sewing together of the two sides of the vulva, leaving only a small
opening for the passage of menstrual blood and urine.
(b) Female genital mutilation is known to be practiced in 28
nations in the African continent, in a few countries in the Arab
Peninsula, among some minority communities in Asia, and among
migrants from these areas who have settled in Europe, Australia, and
North America. This practice has come to California with the influx
of recent immigrant groups from countries that practice female
genital mutilation.
(c) Preliminary research suggests that female genital mutilation
is occurring in California and that young girls in some new immigrant
populations are at high risk of the practice. Researchers have
identified young girls at risk of female genital mutilation in
several immigrant populations in California, along with clear
evidence among recently immigrated parents residing in San Diego that
they intend to mutilate their daughters who have not yet had the
procedure. These parents stated that they will find a local provider
or send their daughters back to visit the country of origin for this
purpose. Further, a few individuals have acknowledged performing
the practice in California. Clusters of immigrants from nations
where the practice of female genital mutilation is common have been
identified in the San Francisco Bay area, in San Diego, and in Los
Angeles.
(d) Female genital mutilation constitutes a major health risk to
women, with lifelong physical, psychological, and human rights
consequences. Complications due to female genital mutilation
include, shock, hemorrhage, infection, tetanus and septicemia from
unsterilized instruments, bladder infection, and even death.
Long-term complications include chronic vaginal and uterine
infections, severe pain during urination, menstruation, and sexual
intercourse, and obstetric complications due to obstruction of the
birth canal by scar tissue. For the obstructed infant, labor can
lead to brain damage or death.
(e) This 4,000-year-old cultural practice is not a requirement of
any major religion. According to the World Health Organization, most
families allow their daughters to undergo female genital mutilation
out of fear that no man will want to marry an "uncircumcised" woman
and that she will be ostracized from the community. Further, some
women believe that clitoridectomy or infibulation are not only more
hygienic, but will also increase a woman's fertility. In some
tribes, infibulation is performed to protect family lineage through
ensuring that wives are virgins at marriage and that the children are
verifiably the men's descendants.
(f) The World Health Organization, which urges the elimination of
the practice, estimates that 2,000,000 girls undergo female genital
mutilation each year. Worldwide, approximately 128,000,000 girls and
women, now living, have been subject to the procedure.
(g) It is time for this state to join with other states, nations,
and major health care and human rights organizations to condemn this
harmful and outdated procedure. The state must take a proactive role
to prevent these mutilations through education and outreach
activities to make recent immigrants aware of California laws,
standards, and expectations for child protection. Heightened
awareness among child protective services workers, health care
providers, educators, and law enforcement personnel will also aid in
achieving this end. Finally, criminal investigations and
prosecutions should be carried out, when necessary, to send a strong
message that California abhors this practice and views its abolition
as paramount to the health and welfare of these young girls.
SEC. 3. Article 8 (commencing with Section 124170) is added to
Chapter 3 of Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
Article 8. Female Genital Mutilation Prevention
124170. The State Department of Health Services, in consultation
with the State Department of Social Services and the appropriate
federal agency or department, shall establish and implement
appropriate education, preventative, and outreach activities,
focusing on the new immigrant populations that traditionally practice
female genital mutilation, for the purpose of informing members of
those communities of the health risks and emotional trauma inflicted
by this practice and informing those communities and the medical
community of the prohibition and ramifications of Section 273.4 of
the Penal Code.
SEC. 4. Section 273.4 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
273.4. (a) If the act constituting a felony violation of
subdivision (a) of Section 273a was female genital mutilation, as
defined in subdivision (b), the defendant shall be punished by an
additional term of imprisonment in the state prison for one year, in
addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed by Section
273a.
(b) "Female genital mutilation" means the excision or infibulation
of the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, or vulva, performed for
nonmedical purposes.
(c) Nothing in this section shall preclude prosecution under
Section 203, 205, or 206 or any other provision of law.