H.B. 139 Female Genital Mutilation Amendments: transcript

Thank you Mr. Chair and committee members. Um, right now it is against the law to perform any kind of female genital mutilation, but there is a challenge with that, which is when it was created about three years ago. Uh, there's a four year statute of limitations. So if the victim is a child, a young person, an infant, there's just, that's just not possible. So this bill does two things. Number one, it eliminates the statute of limitation. Um, the second thing it does is there's currently an educational component that was put in the original bill, um, for a community education, uh, for doctors and such. And that has been taken out. So that puts 16, $6,800 back to the general fund, uh, on an ongoing basis. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you so much. Committee, uh, Delaine England. In the interest of time, I'll cut to the chase. It's self-evident why we need this bill. Please vote for it. Thank you.

Oh, thank you Mr. Chair. I, I wanna make the motion that we move favorably, um, h hp first substitute HB 1 39. And if I can speak to that, I that motion's in order. And feel free to speak to It. Thank, um, as, as one of the original sponsors of this bill, is getting rid of the Sunset Review, I think it's critical. Makes sense. It's been working. We haven't had any problems. That education piece was, you know, for people to have some concerns and I think we, we don't need it anymore. So this is great ways of how we develop, continue to evolve good public policy. So it's a great bill and, and thank you to the sponsor for bringing this. Thank you Mr. Chair.

Thank you for the motion. Thank you for the bill. I just want to be clear, uh, we have statute removal of statute of limitations that often will apply for going forward. And then there's a removal of statute of limitations going back. So someone, for example, in his history who's statute of limitations passed would not be available going forward based on the drafting. The bill is the legislative intent, which to remove it back and forward, is that it? Or is just from this date forward is the question. As much as I want to have it be all the way back forever in a day, because I think the, I think that's, I dunno if I have necessarily have that answer because, um, serving in the law enforcement criminal justice committee, it's, it's difficult to be retroactive. Um, but I think we, we definitely know that from this point forward, this is where we are. So if it's possible to change that language, that would be awesome. But I, I'm not sure that, That we can do that in criminal code.

Uh, yes. I actually appreciate, uh, Representative Peck here. We have combined our bills. So the original bill, um, I'm gonna present and then the substitute language for the repeal. I'm gonna let, uh, Representative Peck describe that.

So in 2023, this legislative body put as a second degree felony. Uh, those who perform fm female genital mutilation. Uh, but what was missed is that most of the time that is, uh, occurs to young children or infants. And so this, uh, legislation puts it under the provision of the code, uh, that there is not a statute of limitations. Currently, the statute means that once this is done, the victim has to come within four years, uh, to prosecute. And obviously that is not going to take place if it's a child. So this, uh, just removes that statute of limitations. Okay, thank you. And I would like to speak to the sub, uh, very simple, um, sub that we've added there. 'cause both of these bills were quite simple. Um, so I'm in the Social Services Appropriations Committee and in that committee we were studying a lot of different line items and recognized that there was a line item for education for female genital mutilation. And I talked to the people who were in charge of that program. I, I am very in favor. I spoke for the bill when Representative Ivory pass the bill a couple of years ago. It's an important topic. I'm glad that our state has made, um, headway there and that we have it outlawed and that we're adding even more protections for the victims. Um, but the education piece of it actually seems to be a little bit unnecessary at this point. They were sending pieces of papers to doctors, they're like, well, we've kind of, you know, sent them to everybody. It's been for a couple of years. So the money was just a little bit of money that we could free up, um, on that education piece. But we're still keeping all of those teeth in the law, and I'm actually really grateful for what Representative Ballard is bringing into it. And so, that's it.

Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion that we pass out favorably, HB 1 39 Female genital muta. I, I I'm sorry, with the substitute. Oh, I need to first do the substitute. That, That's what I heard was that you are motioning to adopt the first Substitute. I would like to adopt the first substitute to HB 1 39.

Uh, no. I thought it was an excellent explanation and very clear about why we need this.

I'd like to make a motion that we pass out favorably HB 1 39 as substituted to the floor of the house. Alright. The motion is to favorably recommend for substitute of House Bill 1 39. Would you like to speak to that? I just, I, I've, I've been aware of this legislation, you know, since Representative Ivory, um, kind of championed it nationally and so forth. Um, I did not, I was not aware that the statute of limitations would, would be an issue. And so I hope that other states are also addressing that. Um, but I appreciate this bill and I, I think it's, um, very important. Thank you.

And we need a motion on the minutes. Representative Acton, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the minutes.

And one final motion. Motion to adjourn.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Right now it is against the law to perform any kind of female genital mutilation. But what is a problem is that the victim only has four years from the time of that incident to be able to prosecute. Since this is primarily done to young children and even babies in our state, um, this poses a problem for the victims to be able to have any prosecution take place. So HB 1 39 does two things. The first one is it eliminates that statute of limitation of only four years, takes off that cap. And the second thing, I'm actually going to yield my time to the good representative from Illa because we combined our bills. I should see a lot of smiles with that, with HB 1 27. So I yield my time.

Oops. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Yeah, the repeal at the bottom was originally my bill. We put the two bills together and basically we're on the same page with this female genital mutilation. We really care about it. It's not something that we want perpetuated in our state, but there, when the original draft legislation went in to make female genital mutilation illegal in the state, there was also a little education program that was put into that with a fiscal note on it. And in the Social Services Appropriations committee, I ended up talking over the interim with the agency about that program and if it was still needed and what the usefulness of of was the program. And they felt that everybody was already fully informed that needed to be informed. And so there was no longer a need for that money. And so this would just pull that money, um, out of that usage so they could be used for something else.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I just wanna recognize the good representative from West Jordan as he, uh, put this into law initially to make this, uh, a felony. So appreciate the, uh, that representative.

uh, that was used to maintain a community education program on female genital mutilations. The most important part of this bill is that it removes the statute of limitations for prosecuting female gen genital mutilation to allow those survivors to seek justice in any timeframe. Currently there's a four year statute of limitations for victims to bring the perpetrators to justice, which is unrealistic since most victims are infants or children at the time of the incident. And with that, I conclude my presentation.

Senator Vickers Baldy Aye. Lewin Aye. B Bramer Bus. Aye. Comore. Escamilla. A Fillmore Grover Aye. Harper Hankins Aye. Ipson Aye. Johnson Juab McKay Mikel Milner Musselman Owens pitcher Plum Re Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers Er aye. Wilson Winterton.

You Mr. President. A motion that we table on third first substitute house bill 1 39 for fiscal impact.

Mr. President, uh, this bill is dealing with, uh, some things that we've been trying to do in my Good House sponsor, myself, have been partnering in trying to make it clear that certain medications can be therapeutically,

Okay. Thank you. Uh, to be brief, this just removes the statute of limitations, which used to be only four years. And when this happens, it's typically at birth and a 4-year-old obviously can't defend themselves. That I conclude my presentation. Thank you. Senator Balderree.

Uh, I move that, uh, house bill first substitute house bill 1 39 shall pass.