The UN World Health Organization’s Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is today, February 6, 2019.

As the WHO says “#FGM violates women’s and girls’ rights. It must stop now.”

There is space for a more complicated debate on FGM, such as whether it is a good idea to make physicians and nurses mandatory reporters for FGM because this might lead parents who have allowed this to be done to their daughters to prevent them from seeking medical care for this or other issues. Some ethicists have argued that health care providers should perform FGM as it is the lesser of two evils, assuming the patient’s parents will have it done in the traditional way, regardless. WHO disagrees. And their core claim that FGM violates women’s and girls’ rights is exactly on target.