Denmark PM apologizes over forced contraception of Greenland's women

Greenlandic women have received an official apology from Denmark after undergoing years of forced contraception as part of a decades-long birth control campaign.

Key Takeaways:

• On September 24, Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, apologized to Greenlandic Indigenous women and girls who were given IUDs against their will from the 1960s through the 1990s.

• After being given the IUD, one woman said she suffered two ectopic pregnancies, surgeries, and the removal of one fallopian tube. 

• Another survivor of the discriminatory and eugenic IUD placements said she was also given an abortion and was never able to have children. She suffered trauma as a result.

The Details:

On Wednesday, September 24, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, apologized in person to Greenlandic Indigenous women and girls who underwent involuntary invasive contraception procedures by the Danish health authorities in instances traceable back to the 1960s. Between the late 1960s and 1992, Danish authorities had hoped to decrease the Inuit birth rate by coercing around 4,500 women to don a contraceptive coil – or intrauterine device (IUD) – against their wishes, Le Monde reported. 

“Today, there is only one real thing to say: Sorry,” Frederiksen proclaimed in Danish, following a Greenlandic address by Jens-Frederik Nielsen. “Sorry for the wrong that was done to you because you were Greenlanders. Sorry for what was taken from you, and for the pain it caused.”

He continued, “Many of you have been fighting for years for justice and for us to listen, for us to take responsibility, and we’re doing that now: Denmark and Greenland together." He bemoaned “a chapter in our shared history that should never have been written.”

During a ceremony on Wednesday in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, Frederiksen, said, “I don't believe we can achieve the more equal and proper relationship that many of us desire unless we dare to open even the darkest chapters."

The emotional event, attended by many victims of forced contraception, signified a long-awaited reckoning with a major scandal that inflicted deep wounds on Greenlandic society and reignited conversations about the dignity of Indigenous women.

“Therefore the apology I offer today is not only about the past. It is also about our present and our future. About the mutual trust that must exist between us,” Frederiksen said.

Among the victims of Denmark’s forced contraceptive campaign was Kirstine Berthelsen, who told Agence France-Presse (AFP) she had borne the consequences of the contraceptive IUD implanted in her, including two ectopic pregnancies, surgeries, and the removal of one fallopian tube. 

Hearing the apology in person was important for Berthelsen, who said, “I can then move on in my life without hatred, anger, and negativity eating me up from within.”

Katrine Petersen was just 13 when she was given an IUD against her will following an abortion that appears to have been coerced as well. Years later, when she married, she was unable to have children. She is now 52 and said the trauma she endured led to “anger, depression, and too much to drink."

Earlier in August this year, Denmark and Greenland issued joint apologies for their mistreatment of these Greenlandic women and girls, according to a report by Associated Press (AP). 

The AP reported in August that Dwayne Menezes, managing director of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative, said Danish policies, such as forced contraception as well as the removal of young Inuit children from their parents to be given to Danish foster families for reeducation, have dehumanized Greenlanders and their families. 

Referring to the case of Denmark’s forced contraception of Greenlandic women, Menezes said: 

“If we don’t recognize the important lesson this teaches us, we will not recognize in time the manifestations and recurrences of such divisive and dehumanizing policies when they resurface.” 

The Bottom Line:

From a pro-life perspective, the Greenland scandal is a sobering reminder that intrusive and anti-life state policies to limit fertility breach the very dignity and sanctity of women’s ability to become mothers. As survivors in Nuuk lamented about lost opportunities for motherhood and childbearing and long-term medical ramifications as a result of the IUDs, pro-life advocates can see how anti-life state policies, on the pretext of a particular political ideology, reflect the horrors of population control policies globally.