Alyssa Milano, in a quote tweet of Raw Story article, seems to be implying that the Trump administration approves of female genital mutilation because the Justice Department will not be defending a law banning the practice that was recently ruled unconstitutional by a Michigan federal judge:
“The Trump administration is refusing to defend the national ban on torturing young girls in the most awful and breathtakingly indefensible way imaginable…while sentencing them to lives of pain, despair and psychological torment.” #WarOnWomen https://t.co/uoS85LKS8c
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) May 16, 2019
This case refers to Michigan doctor Jumana Nagarwala, who was indicted in 2017 on charges of performing this barbaric act on young girls she had flown to her clinic from Minnesota:
HORRIFIC: Michigan doctor charged with performing female genital mutilation on young girls https://t.co/3awdfRDVkB
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 13, 2017
The charges against her were later dismissed when the law was ruled unconstitutional:
HOLY S*IT: Judge cites Commerce Clause as reason law banning female genital mutilation is unconstitutional; Charges dismissed https://t.co/eI1dvzlIWF
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 21, 2018
From Business Insider:
. . .Michigan federal Judge Bernard Friedman ruled it unconstitutional in November 2018. He dismissed the charges against Nagarwala brought under the anti-FGM law.
“I think this was purely a legal decision based on the law and the Constitution, and I think it will be fixed,” Lemisch said.
“You have to look at whether the law itself has an interstate commerce aspect to it. In other words, the law has to say ‘you need interstate activity of some kind in order for it to be a federal offense,'” he said. “And the law in this case did not contain such a provision. So, it’s not that there wasn’t interstate activity, it’s that the law didn’t require interstate activity, and therefore according to the court, it violated the Constitution.”
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The Trump administration has asked Congress to fix the law rather than defend it through an appeal:
Anti-FGM activists were disappointed, but the government still had the opportunity to appeal the court decision. Now, though, it looks like the Justice Department won’t pursue it. Last month, the Trump administration sent a letter to Congress saying there aren’t adequate grounds to defend the law and urged lawmakers to fix it.
So the Trump administration literally wants Congress to write a new law to make the ban constitutional and this is the crap Milano posts?
Oh, and maybe she should check with her Planned Parenthood pals, because they’re the ones arguing against state laws prohibiting female genital mutilation at the state level. Again, from Business Insider:
Meanwhile, several states that don’t already have bans on FGM are considering bills to enact them. Some have faced opposition. In Connecticut, Susan Yolen, a vice president of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Inc., argued a law might end up putting more pressure on girls who’d have to turn in their own family members.
Yolen actually argued the Trump administration was targeting Muslims, another reason why she couldn’t support the ban:
“And so, if they are frightened away from their health care provider because of a practice that many of us might consider you know, barbaric or dangerous, then that’s not a good thing,” she said. “I think finding out what we need to find out about its prevalence is a good step one before we decide it’s a criminal activity.”
Yolen was also suspicious after she learned the Connecticut bill was sponsored by people whom she thought might be Islamophobic.
“It’s mostly Muslim folks who practice this procedure — they have been specifically targeted by the current administration,” she said.
Milano is going to need to delete this and apologize.
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Related:
WTF? Alyssa Milano going this route to advocate for abortion is ‘incredibly sick’ [pic] https://t.co/CqqTdgFDaa
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 16, 2019
Unhinged: Emily Zanotti shames America’s feminists, is accused of supporting female genital mutilation https://t.co/7oNUphN2Na
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 8, 2018
Awkward! Looks like Alyssa Milano needs to have a chat with Planned Parenthood about fetal heartbeats [screenshots] https://t.co/rUPNrdUZOW
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 15, 2019
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