(Detroit Free Press) Nearly five years after it emerged, the nation’s first female genital mutilation case has taken yet another turn in a heated feud between a government that says children were unlawfully cut and a doctor who says she only “scraped” young girls as part of a religious practice.
The historic prosecution involves minor girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, including some who cried, screamed and bled during the procedure and one who was given Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to keep her calm, court records show.
The 2017 case has taken many twists and turns over the years, with [the] bulk of the charges being dropped and the FGM law being declared unconstitutional in 2018. The case was set to go to trial in April 2019 on a single obstruction charge, but COVID-19 hit and the prosecution came to a halt.
