Dem Senate Candidate 'Repeatedly' Blocked Bills Banning Female Genital Mutilation
Sara Gideon, the Democratic Speaker of Maine’s House of Representatives, hopes to unseat longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in that race this fall.
However, at least one aspect of Gideon’s voting record should make every Maine resident think twice about supporting her.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Gideon “repeatedly killed bills to outlaw female genital mutilation during her tenure as the Maine Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
Instead, she supported a bill that “would have funneled $150,000 to her political allies to educate Mainers about the practice instead of criminalizing it.”
The World Health Organization states that female genital mutilation (FGM) “involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”
FGM, which WHO calls “a violation of the human rights of girls and women,” comes with significant health risks. Two years ago, a 10-year-old girl bled to death after undergoing the procedure in Somalia.
Yet, Gideon and her fellow Democrats in Maine decided it was more important to avoid looking racist than it was to protect young girls.
As The Free Beacon explained, “Democrats frequently charged that the bill (criminalizing FGM) is racist toward the state’s Muslim and Somali populations.”
If anything, not passing the bill is “racist toward the state’s Muslim and Somali populations.” After all, if they cared about those groups as much as they say they do, they would seek to protect young women from this barbaric practice.
Gideon’s embrace, or failure to condemn, the inhumane practice of FGM shouldn’t come as a surprise. Last year, the Speaker sponsored a bill allowing non-doctors to perform abortions, again raising the appearance that she cares more about a political agenda than the safety of women.
If she wins the U.S. Senate election in Maine this fall, Gideon surely will bring her politically correct philosophy to Washington. First, she has to defeat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who has represented the state since 1997.
In the past, Collins has proved difficult to beat even though she is a Republican in a state that has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1992.
In 2008, she won re-election by 23 percentage points even as Democrat Barack Obama carried the state in the presidential election.
In 2014, Collins won re-election by a whopping 37 points. However, it seems unlikely she will have such a strong showing as she seeks re-election to a fifth term in 2020.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls taken in the Maine Senate race shows Collins trailing Gideon by 4.5 percentage points.
Collins’ decisions to vote against impeaching President Donald Trump and support the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court might hurt her in a state that leans left.
If voters knew about Gideon’s voting record regarding female genital mutilation, the race might not be that close. When the country of Sudan works harder than Sara Gideon to ban female genital mutilation, she must know she’s on the wrong side of history.
Unfortunately, Gideon isn’t the only political figure working to sabotage laws banning FGM. Two years ago, a federal judge ruled that a federal law banning the practice was unconstitutional.
Opposition to female genital mutilation should be a bipartisan issue. Yet because of liberal partisans such as Gideon seeking to make everything about race, it tragically has become another divisive wedge issue in some cases.
In a tweet last year, Gideon professed support for a measure to expand access to abortion. The lawmaker portrayed herself as a champion of women who believes that “every woman has the right to safely make her own health decisions and to control her own future.”
Gideon was proud to support a bill that would “finally correct an outdated law.”
No matter where they live, every woman has the right to safely make her own health decisions and to control her own future. I’m proud to sponsor this bill which will finally correct an outdated law that severely limits safe access to abortion. #mepolitics https://t.co/onoSkB1YNn
— Speaker Sara Gideon (@SpeakerGideon) March 14, 2019
Actions speak louder than words. No one should take Gideon seriously when she proclaims to believe in women having the “right to safely make” health care decisions and repealing “outdated” laws until she gets behind a ban on female genital mutilation.
While Democrats, including Gideon, like to portray themselves as “progressives,” there is nothing “progressive” about FGM.
Voters should keep in mind Gideon’s opposition to a bill banning the brutal practice as they head to the polls in November.
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