As an obstetrician treating a patient, there is a moment I experience in the exam room a few times a week that hangs thick in the air. I see a woman’s body stiffen, her spirit crumpled; she has been violated in the most horrific of ways, the intimate parts that make her a woman knifed off in a barbaric ritual that is common across West Africa.
As an OB/GYN doctor practicing in a suburb of Washington, D.C., I see women every day in my office that have some form of this practice known as female genital mutilation (FGM). Alarmingly, the number of U.S. women and girls who have undergone or are at risk of undergoing this horrific practice has more than tripled over the last two decades due to the rapid growth of immigrants from countries where the risk of FGM is greatest.