Are we considering legitimizing an abhorrent practice?

This is unspeakable. That we even have to write about it is preposterous and horrible. But here it is:

Yesterday, I was doing some reading and writing on a disturbing topic: the AAP and FGM. “AAP”? The American Academy of Pediatrics. These people seem to be softening on female genital mutilation, or FGM. This is that abhorrent practice performed on girls as young as two in Muslim and some other societies. The AAP is no longer calling FGM FGM — they’re calling it “FGC,” for “female genital cutting.” Much nicer, you see. The phrase “female genital mutilation” is “culturally insensitive,” they say. And their new position is, “Why don’t we allow doctors to give the girls a ritual nick?” This is supposed to prevent the parents of those girls from shipping them off to Somalia or wherever to undergo the whole, horrific deal. There is an argument to be made here. But the AAP may be engaging in a compromise that becomes surrender.