FILE - Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, right, during a statement at Marienborg, Denmark, April 27, 2025. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, file)
Over 350 Greenlandic women and girls forcibly given contraception by Danish officials, report says
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — More than 350 Greenlandic Indigenous women and girls, including some 12 years old and younger, reported that they were forcibly given contraception by Danish health authorities in cases that date back to the 1960s, according to an independent investigation’s findings released Tuesday.
FILE - Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, right, during a statement at Marienborg, Denmark, April 27, 2025. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, file)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — More than 350 Greenlandic Indigenous women and girls, including some 12 years old and younger, reported that they were forcibly given contraception by Danish health authorities in cases that date back to the 1960s, according to an independent investigation’s findings released Tuesday.
The Inuit victims, many of them teenagers at the time, were either fitted with intrauterine contraceptive devices, known as IUDs or coils, or given a hormonal birth control injection. They were not told details about the procedure, or did not give their consent.
The victims described traumatic experiences that left some with physical side effects, ranging from pain and bleeding to serious infections.
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The governments of Denmark and Greenland month for their roles in the historic mistreatment in an apparent attempt to get ahead of the highly anticipated report, which covered 488 times when a woman was given forced contraception between 1960 and 1991.
Nearly 150 Inuit women last year sued Denmark and filed compensation claims against its health ministry, saying Danish health authorities violated their human rights. Danish authorities last year said as many as 4,500 women and girls — reportedly half the fertile women in Greenland at the time — received IUDs between the 1960s and mid-1970s.
The alleged purpose was to limit population growth in Greenland by preventing pregnancies. The population on the Arctic island was rapidly increasing at the time because of better living conditions and better health care.
Greenland took over its own health care programs on Jan. 1, 1992.
Centuries of dehumanizing policies
The investigation’s conclusion comes as Greenland is in the headlines alongside U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said he seeks U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland. He has of the
The leaders of Denmark and Greenland say the island is not for sale. Denmark’s foreign minister recently for talks after the main national broadcaster reported that at least three people with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
Greenland, which remains part of the Danish realm, was a colony under Denmark’s crown until 1953, when it became a province in the Scandinavian country. In 1979, the island was granted home rule, and 30 years later Greenland became a self-governing entity.
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The forced contraception of Indigenous women and girls was part of centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized Greenlanders and their families.
The policies included the removal of young Inuit children from their parents to be given to Danish foster families for reeducation and controversial parental competency tests that resulted in the forced separation of Greenlandic families.
The report’s findings
The investigators received reports from 354 Greenlandic women who were between 48 and 89 years old when they spoke to authorities for the independent investigation, which began June 1, 2023 following a media outcry.
Almost all victims were between 12 and 37 years old at the time. One girl was under 12, but her exact age was not made public in Tuesday’s report due to anonymity concerns. The vast majority of the procedures occurred in Greenland.
Most of the women reported a single incident, while eight women said they were forcibly given contraception at least three times.
