Denmark apologises to Greenlanders over birth control experiment

Danish doctors inserted contraceptive devices into thousands of women without their knowledge.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has issued an apology for an enforced contraception campaign aimed at regulating the birth rate in Greenland. The controversial program saw thousands of young Greenlandic women and girls fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs), often without their knowledge or consent.

The practice took place mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, while Greenland’s healthcare system was still under Danish control, and remained largely unknown until 2022. That year, the podcast Spiralkampagnen (The Spiral Campaign) by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation uncovered records showing that up to 4,500 women and girls had IUDs inserted without informed consent.

Some women received the devices after childbirth without being told, while in other cases the language barrier reportedly kept them from understanding the procedure. The revelations sparked public outrage and renewed calls for accountability.

“We acknowledge that the spiral case is a source of both anger and sorrow for many Greenlanders and many families in Greenland,” Frederiksen said on Wednesday. “We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility. Therefore, on behalf of Denmark, I would like to say: I’m sorry.”

The prime minister referred to “the girls and women who were subjected to systematic discrimination” simply because “they are Greenlanders,” offering an apology “for the physical and psychological harm they have suffered, for being let down.”

Frederiksen pledged that discussions with Greenland’s government would continue following the release of a full investigation, including questions of possible financial compensation to the women affected.

An independent inquiry into the scandal is ongoing, with its findings expected to be released in September 2025.

In 2024, a group of 143 women, now in their 70s and 80s, filed a lawsuit against Denmark’s Ministry of the Interior and Health over the forced contraception procedures. They are seeking a total of nearly 43 million kroner (approximately $6.3 million) in compensation, according to their lawyer.

Denmark offered public apologies in 2022 to the victims of a 1950s experiment in which children from Greenland were taken to Denmark.