(Bucks County Courier Times) State Rep. Tom Murt, R-152, of Upper Moreland, first encountered female genital mutilation while he was stationed in Iraq in 2003, and saw a father carrying his young daughter who was covered in blankets and suffering extreme blood loss.
Sixteen years later, Murt’s House Bill 315 criminalizing female genital mutilation in Pennsylvania was signed into law. The practice now is a first-degree felony, making it illegal to perform the procedure on a minor female.
“Now there is something on the books that will protect young women in Pennsylvania from this ghastly practice,” Murt said Wednesday.
The bill passed unanimously in the Senate on June 19 and was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf June 28.
