Rep. Heather Sirocki, R-Scarborough, proposed LD 745, which would criminalize the practice of female genital mutilation — a practice found prevalent in Middle East cultures. It involves the cutting of the genitalia of usually younger girls so they are incapable of experiencing sexual pleasure, supposedly to keep them from straying in later life.

It can be relatively minor or include complete removal of the clitoris with deep cutting and sewing, often under septic conditions without anesthetic. It is a brutal, vile act. It is child abuse at its near-worst.

Democrats got the idea that criminalizing might drive the practice into secrecy, and that it’s already covered under child abuse laws. A closely kept secret among those who practice it, the district attorneys of Maine testified that they wanted the specific law to prosecute the crime. Democrats demanded education for the people likely to commit FGM, so that they would know that slicing up their little girls is wrong. What?

Republicans agreed to amendments with an educational component but Democrats killed the bill by one vote in the House after the Senate voted unanimously to pass. Now Democrats are calling it a hate bill.

Who hates? Those who would jail the vicious perpetrators, or those who won’t take any action? The obstructionist left is out of control, billing themselves as champions of the downtrodden and less fortunate. Some little Somali girls of Lewiston or Portland may lose their sexuality and undergo torture until the next session?

I have to ask, who hates?

Jared Bristol, Hebron