#EndFGM — New Iowa bill for ‘Day of Zero Tolerance’
Today is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. So it is appropriate that members of the Iowa House have begun work on a bipartisan bill that would ban the heinous cultural practice in the Hawkeye State. Iowa Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced House Study Bill 115 this week and assigned it to an all-female subcommittee consisting of Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids, Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, and Liz Bennett, D-Cedar Rapids. The introductory language of this bill is nearly identical to House File 63, which had been introduced last month by seven Democrats. Currently, the offering makes non-medical female genital mutilation procedures as well as trafficking girls for such procedures Class D felonies. This is the lowest tier of felonies in Iowa,…