Thomson Reuters Foundation: Female genital mutilation hurts economies, says WHO
“Female genital mutilation (FGM) is exacting a ‘crippling’ economic toll on many countries, the United Nations said on Thursday as it launched a tool to help them calculate the cost of treating girls and women harmed by the practice. An estimated 200 million girls and women worldwide have undergone FGM, which causes a host of mental and physical health problems including hemorrhaging, chronic infections, cysts, and life-threatening childbirth complications…” (Batha, 2/6).

U.N. News: Female Genital Mutilation costs $1.4 billion annually: U.N. health agency
“Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) poses serious risks to the health and well-being of women and girls, but it also exacts a crippling economic toll, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). New modeling by the U.N. agency to coincide with the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, marked on Thursday, reveals that the cost of treating the total health impacts of FGM would amount to $1.4 billion globally per year…” (2/5).