Where are women living with the consequences of female genital mutilation or at risk in the Americas?
- CANADA – Statistics Canada estimates that there are between 95,000 – 161,000 women and girls living in Canada who have either undergone FGM/C or are at risk.
- COLOMBIA – Type I female genital mutilation is known to be practiced by the Embera indigenous people in Colombia, normally on newborn babies. It is estimated that two out of every three Emberá women have suffered FGM/C. Other Indigenous communities and Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizales, and Palenqueras communities may practice FGM/C.
- UNITED STATES – Female genital mutilation is widely known to take place among diaspora communities in the United States. Less known are the stories of female genital mutilation occurring in the local population, including within Christian communities. An estimated 513,000* women and girls nationwide are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation. A 2023 study by AHA Foundation found that an estimated 577,000 women and girls were potentially impacted by FGM/C in 2019, though this figure is reduced to 421,000 if the estimate takes into account the impact of migration on the practice.
Countries with historical evidence of the practice of female genital mutilation in the Americas
In a number of countries, including Peru, Mexico, and Brazil, there is historical evidence of female genital mutilation having taken place among the native population within the last generation. However, further research is needed to confirm whether or not the practice has died out or if it persists. Further research is needed in these countries to confirm whether female genital mutilation is still taking place or not.
- Peru: The practice of introcision has been reported in the past among the Conibos, a division of Pano Indians from Peru. (OHCHR, 1995). Introcision has been described as a practice where an elderly woman using a bamboo knife “cuts around the hymen from the vaginal entrance and severs the hymen from the labia, at the same time exposing the clitoris. Medicinal herbs are applied.” A documentary film from 2017 (Chua) documents the existence of female genital mutilation among the Shipibo people in Peru in the form of clitoridectomies (Type I FGM). Community members, however, reported that the practice was last known to take place around forty years ago and had been abandoned by the community (Tomazoni & Garbini Both, 2018). There is no recent evidence from Peru that documents the continued existence of FGM/C within the country. In its submission to the UN Secretary-General in 2024, the Peruvian government confirmed that there was no current evidence available of FGM/C occurring within the country.
- Brazil and Mexico: A report from the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights from 1995 reports the practice of “introcision” in Brazil and eastern Mexico (OHCHR, 1995). Introcision is usually defined as the enlarging or tearing of the vaginal opening and in some cases the perineum as well. Clitoridectomies (Type I FGM) have been reported in the past in Western Brazil and Mexico until the late 1970s (Rushwan, 2013), though there is insufficient evidence to determine current practice.
- In addition, there is evidence of white communities in the U.S. and the U.K being subjected to female genital mutilation, as doctors used to prescribe clitoridectomies (Type I FGM) as a cure for hysteria, mental illness and masturbation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Are there laws against female genital mutilation in the Americas?
The U.S. and Canada haves specific laws or legal provisions against female genital mutilation. 41 States in the U.S. currently have laws against FGM/C. However, the level of protection available under these laws varies from state to state. It is also a federal crime to perform FGM/C in the US or take a girl out of the country for the purpose of undergoing it, under the STOP FGM Act of 2020. Explore the state-level laws on FGM in the US through this state laws map co-created by Equality Now and the U.S. End FGM/C Network.
There are no specific laws or legal provisions against female genital mutilation in Latin America, though there is currently a bill on FGM pending before the Colombian Congress (in 2025).