*The original article mistakenly says 22 states have yet to criminalize FGM, the accurate number is 19 because of Arkansas, Utah, and Idaho banning the practice.

The Iowa House passed legislation criminalizing female genital mutilation.

The topic, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, told representatives, “frankly, is not pleasant.”

Female genital mutilation — the cutting of a female’s clitoris as practiced in Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia as well as in the United States — is, in essence, “a sexual assault on a young girl’s private parts that scars her for life both literally and figuratively,” Hinson said.

Female mutilation law earns support – Neighbors Newspaper

*The original article mistakenly says 22 states have yet to criminalize FGM, the accurate number is 19 because of Arkansas, Utah, and Idaho banning the practice.