Women in Greenland forcibly given contraceptives, report finds

Independent researchers on Tuesday published a report describing how Danish doctors gave more than 350 women and girls some form of contraceptive without their informed consent. The majority of the cases took place in the 1960s and 1970s, and involved doctors either implanting intrauterine contraceptive devices, or IUDs, or administering hormonal birth control injections without their patients’ knowledge or consent. Most of the victims said they had not given their consent to either procedure, and some doctors implanted IUDs into girls of age 12 and younger during regular checkups, according to the study authors. Many women described experiencing heavy bleeding, infections, and severe pain after the procedures and more than 85% of the cases included in the investigation resulted in health complications. Some women said the contraceptive interventions prevented them from ever being able to conceive a child. It is unclear exactly how many girls and women in Greenland received IUDs in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the program.

What is the history of the case? Denmark colonized Greenland in 1721 and it remained a colony until it became a province in 1953. In 1979, Greenland gained more control over its own governance through the Greenland Home Rule Act, though it remained part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It became an autonomous territory of Denmark in 2009. Denmark controlled the island’s health care system until 1992, and in the 1960s and 1970s authorities instituted an official program to control Greenland’s birth rate. Now, experts refer to the program as the so-called Spiral Case, named after the shape of an IUD.

After some of the victims came forward to publicly discuss their experiences, the University of Greenland and the Center for Public Health in Greenland at the University of Southern Denmark in 2022 began an investigation into the program. Last year, a group of 143 indigenous women filed a lawsuit against Denmark seeking $6.3 million in damages. The governments of Denmark and Greenland last month apologized for their roles in the program and an official apology event was scheduled to take place in Greenland’s capital of Nuuk later this month, according to the Associated Press.

Dig deeper: Read Travis Kircher’s report about a failed U.S. Senate bill that aimed to establish the right to contraception.