SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening the Op-
position to Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2020’’ or the 
‘‘STOP FGM Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) Female genital mutilation is recognized 
internationally as a human rights violation and a 
form of child abuse, gender discrimination, and vio-
lence against women and girls. Female genital muti-
lation is a global problem whose eradication requires 
international cooperation and enforcement at the na-
tional level. The United States should demonstrate 
its commitment to the rights of women and girls by 
leading the way in the international community in 
banning this abhorrent practice. 
(2) Congress has previously prohibited the com-
mission of female genital mutilation on minors. Fe-
male genital mutilation is a heinous practice that 
often inflicts excruciating pain on its victims and 
causes them to suffer grave physical and psycho-
logical harm. 
(3) Congress has the power under article I, sec-
tion 8 of the Constitution to make all laws which 
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into exe-
cution treaties entered into by the United States.
(4) Congress also has the power under the 
Commerce Clause to prohibit female genital mutila-
tion. An international market for the practice exists, 
and persons who perform female genital mutilation 
in other countries typically earn a living from doing 
so. 
(5) Those who perform this conduct often rely 
on a connection to interstate or foreign commerce, 
such as interstate or foreign travel, the transmission 
or receipt of communications in interstate or foreign 
commerce, the use of instruments traded in inter-
state or foreign commerce, or payments of any kind 
in furtherance of this conduct. 
(6) Amending the statute to specify a link to 
interstate or foreign commerce would confirm that 
Congress has the affirmative power to prohibit this 
conduct. 
SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO CURRENT LAW ON FEMALE GEN-
ITAL MUTILATION. 
Section 116 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended— 
(1) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol-
lows:
‘‘(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), whoever, 
in any circumstance described in subsection (d), know-
ingly— 
‘‘(1) performs, attempts to perform, or con-
spires to perform female genital mutilation on an-
other person who has not attained the age of 18 
years; 
‘‘(2) being the parent, guardian, or caretaker of 
a person who has not attained the age of 18 years 
facilitates or consents to the female genital mutila-
tion of such person; or 
‘‘(3) transports a person who has not attained 
the age of 18 years for the purpose of the perform-
ance of female genital mutilation on such person, 
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 
10 years, or both.’’; 
(2) by amending subsection (c) to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(c) It shall not be a defense to a prosecution under 
this section that female genital mutilation is required as 
a matter of religion, custom, tradition, ritual, or standard 
practice.’’; 
(3) by striking subsection (d); and 
(4) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(d) For the purposes of subsection (a), the cir-
cumstances described in this subsection are that— 
‘‘(1) the defendant or victim traveled in inter-
state or foreign commerce, or traveled using a 
means, channel, facility, or instrumentality of inter-
state or foreign commerce, in furtherance of or in 
connection with the conduct described in subsection 
(a); 
‘‘(2) the defendant used a means, channel, fa-
cility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign 
commerce in furtherance of or in connection with 
the conduct described in subsection (a); 
‘‘(3) any payment of any kind was made, di-
rectly or indirectly, in furtherance of or in connec-
tion with the conduct described in subsection (a) 
using any means, channel, facility, or instrumen-
tality of interstate or foreign commerce or in or af-
fecting interstate or foreign commerce; 
‘‘(4) the defendant transmitted in interstate or 
foreign commerce any communication relating to or 
in furtherance of the conduct described in subsection 
(a) using any means, channel, facility, or instrumen-
tality of interstate or foreign commerce or in or af-
fecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means
or in manner, including by computer, mail, wire, or 
electromagnetic transmission; 
‘‘(5) any instrument, item, substance, or other 
object that has traveled in interstate or foreign com-
merce was used to perform the conduct described in 
subsection (a); 
‘‘(6) the conduct described in subsection (a) oc-
curred within the special maritime and territorial ju-
risdiction of the United States, or any territory or 
possession of the United States; or 
‘‘(7) the conduct described in subsection (a) 
otherwise occurred in or affected interstate or for-
eign commerce. 
‘‘(e) For purposes of this section, the term ‘female 
genital mutilation’ means any procedure performed for 
non-medical reasons that involves partial or total removal 
of, or other injury to, the external female genitalia, and 
includes— 
‘‘(1) a clitoridectomy or the partial or total re-
moval of the clitoris or the prepuce or clitoral hood; 
‘‘(2) excision or the partial or total removal 
(with or without excision of the clitoris) of the labia 
minora or the labia majora, or both;