Minnesota FGM prosecutions remain zero despite state felony law

More than half a million women and girls in the United States live with the physical and psychological scars of female genital mutilation — including many women in Minnesota, home to a large Somali community from a country where nearly 98% of women have undergone the procedure, according to UN data.

However, despite a state law that makes carrying out such actions a felony, Minnesota has never secured a single criminal prosecution under its law — raising questions about enforcement, and whether cases can go undetected.

Female genital mutilation, or FGM, involves cutting or removing parts of the female reproductive organs, usually for cultural rather than medical reasons. This practice is irreversible.

“It’s hidden — it’s a cultural practice, and whoever does the circumcision could be a family member or a doctor who also belongs to the same culture,” Minnesota Republican Rep. Mary Franson told Fox News Digital, noting that it may be performed within close-knit communities. She said the secrecy surrounding this practice makes it extremely difficult to detect and confront.

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Razors are often used before FGM. (Reuters/James Akina)

For some within Minnesota’s Somali community, the issue is less about public crime statistics and more about private silence — a practice that survivors say takes place in secrecy, shame and fear.

The lack of prosecutions comes amid broader scrutiny of how Minnesota agencies handle oversight failures, including high-profile welfare and day care. Fraud cases The plaintiffs allege that billions of taxpayer dollars were withdrawn while red flags were not addressed. Investigators and watchdogs later concluded that officials were reluctant to investigate deeply into culturally sensitive contexts — and critics say this reluctance allowed widespread abuses to continue in plain sight.

The estimate of more than half a million survivors in the United States comes from the most recent national analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Published in 2016.

The scale of the problem and the difficulty of detecting it have raised questions about whether Minnesota’s ban on female genital mutilation is being effectively enforced when the crime is often carried out in secrecy.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born activist and author who survived FGM, recalled the harm the practice caused her and the need for accountability. ((Photo by Leonardo Sendamo/Getty Images))

Survivor warns of permanent damage

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born activist and author who survived FGM, described the lasting physical and psychological harm she suffered and called for legal accountability.

“FGM is violence against the most vulnerable children,” Hirsi Ali told Fox News Digital. “It causes infections, incontinence, unbearable pain during childbirth, and deep physical and emotional scars that never heal. Religious or cultural practices that intentionally and brutally harm children must be confronted. No tradition can ever justify torture.”

Hirsi Ali, who founded AHA Foundation As a way to end FGM, she said the pressure placed on parents in these groups to enforce the practice poses a significant risk to girls.

“Only legal accountability can help reduce this risk,” said Hirsi Ali. “I survived FGM and I carry its scars with me. But I refuse to accept that another girl in America has to endure what I did in Somalia.”

“I remember being detained”

Zahra Abdullahi, a Somali FGM survivor based in Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that the practice remains secret, protected by family pressure and silence.

Abdullah, who spoke to Fox News Digital on camera but asked for her face to be hidden, said she was between six and seven years old when she was forcibly restrained in a refugee camp in Kenya while adult women in her community performed the procedure without anesthesia, using a razor blade.

“They tied my hands and feet,” Abdullah said. “I remember being tied up. I remember the pain – and I remember not being able to escape.”

Abdullah said she was “lucky” because she resisted during the operation, kicking one of the women who was pregnant at the time. She added that the defect led to the cutting process stopping before it was completely completed. She said the wound was later washed with salt water.

“This pain — I thought I was going to pass out,” she said.

Instruments used to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) are on display in Kisii, Kenya in 2023. (Simon Maina/AFP)

She said the damage followed her into adulthood, later requiring surgery and, in her view, contributing to multiple miscarriages. She also said that intercourse was very difficult.

The practice is often driven by expectations of marriage, she said, adding that men in some communities are reluctant to marry women who have not undergone the procedure.

“It’s tied to the dowry. It’s tied to marriage,” she said, referring to the financial and social expectations placed on families when arranging a marriage. “It’s tied to what men expect,” she said. “The families believe it protects the girl’s value.”

Silence remains one of the biggest barriers to implementation, she said. She is the executive director of the non-profit organization Somali Relief Agency (SRA), Which seeks to raise awareness about this practice.

“You don’t talk about that,” she said. “You were told to stay calm.”

While she said she cannot confirm specific cases within Minnesota, she believes some families take their girls to Somalia during school breaks to have the procedure done.

No prosecutions despite criminal law

Her warning reflects how some of the only known American cases have emerged.

In a High-profile federal case And in Michigan in 2017, prosecutors alleged that two young girls were transported from Minnesota to undergo female genital mutilation. The case later collapsed because the judge ruled that Congress clearly did not have the constitutional authority, at the time, to expand federal jurisdiction in cases involving interstate or international travel.

This ruling prompted Congress to strengthen the statute, which is a change President Donald Trump signed it into law In 2021 under the Stop FGM Act, which expanded federal jurisdiction in cases involving interstate or international travel.

Women wearing traditional Islamic clothing walk on a sidewalk in Minneapolis. The city is home to a large Muslim population. (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital) (Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

However, a Fox News Digital review of publicly available Minnesota court records, enforcement announcements and professional licensing disciplinary records found no documented prosecutions or punishments linked to FGM. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office said prosecutions for state crimes such as female genital mutilation are handled by district attorneys and it has not identified any cases of female genital mutilation. County prosecutors contacted for this story also did not specify any prosecutions.

However, these rulings did not result in documented criminal prosecutions.

The state of Minnesota criminalized female genital mutilation in 1994, classifying the practice as a felony.

The Minnesota Department of Health told Fox News Digital that it does not track specific data on female genital mutilation, underscoring how difficult it is to monitor or enforce the practice.

Global context, local uncertainty

Worldwide, FGM is most prevalent in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Somalia has the highest prevalence rates Rates in the world, as United Nations data estimates that approximately 98% of women aged 15 to 49 years have undergone this procedure. The United Nations, World Health Organization and UNICEF classify female genital mutilation as a human rights violation rooted in efforts to control female sexuality and promote gender inequality, and the United Nations observes an annual awareness day in February to combat the practice globally.

These numbers describe conditions in Somalia and are not proof that the practice is occurring in Minnesota, but they help explain why the risks are recognized even as the practice is difficult to detect.

Medical experts He says the procedure can cause chronic pain, heavy bleeding, infections, urinary tract problems, sexual dysfunction, birth complications and, in some cases, death. Because it permanently changes reproductive tissue, the damage cannot be undone. Survivors often require repeated medical care and suffer lasting psychological trauma.

Critics say the gap between the law and its implementation is fueled by silence.

Often, survivors do not report the practice due to fear, stigma, family pressure, or concern about interference by authorities – even where mandatory reporting laws are in place. Medical professionals, especially obstetricians and gynecologists, are often the first to encounter adult survivors, placing physicians near the center of any implementation effort that has not yet been achieved.

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The CDC has not released a new national estimate, and there is no data on how many people have been killed in Minnesota. However, it included the CDC-supported Women’s Health Needs Study conducted from 2019 to 2021. Minneapolis is one From four US metro areas documenting a large number of survivors.

The study did not track where the proceedings occurred or whether anyone was charged, underscoring how little the public knows about enforcement.

Fox News Digital also contacted several Minnesota clinics that provide reproductive and women’s health services and asked whether doctors are encountering patients with physical evidence of female genital mutilation. No one responded.

The AHA Foundation said it is pushing for President Donald Trump to sign an executive order to make combating female genital mutilation a national priority. (Tasos Katopoudis/Getty Images)

Lawmakers push task force amid accountability questions

Some Minnesota lawmakers have filed Legislation this session To create a “Female Genital Mutilation Prevention Task Force” — a move that Rep. Mary Franson said reflects concerns raised by women in the community that the practice may be occurring or undetected in Minnesota.

Franson said the legislation came about due to concerns raised by women in Somali society. The bill’s lead author is Rep. Hulda Momani-Heltsley, a Democrat of Kenyan descent, and Franson is co-sponsoring it with Democratic Reps. Christine Bahner, Christy Purcell, and Ankum Mohamud, a Somali-American. None of them responded to Fox News Digital’s multiple requests for comment.

Franson said she became a focal point of opposition once she became publicly associated with the bill.

“Women in the Somali community introduced the bill,” Franson said. “I was the lead author, but then the Democrats told one of the LFD women that if she carried the bill, they wouldn’t support it.” “Of course, because they think I’m a racist.”

Franson, who is white, first introduced legislation related to female genital mutilation in 2017 that would have classified the practice as child abuse and clarified parental accountability. These efforts faltered and never became law.

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At the federal level, Congress criminalized female genital mutilation in 1996 and later expanded federal jurisdiction in 2018 under legislation signed by then-President donald trump, Explicitly covers situations involving interstate or international travel.

However, prosecutions across the country have remained rare, with the only widely cited statewide conviction occurring in Georgia in 2006, where a woman was convicted under Georgia state law for performing female genital mutilation on a minor.

And in Minnesota, where the practice has been a felony since 1994, there is no public record of a single criminal prosecution – raising an inevitable question: With registered laws and a documented number of survivors, who is responsible for enforcing the ban, and why have prosecutions not followed?