Greenlandic women sue Denmark over historic involuntary contraception

In Greenland, there is at times an acute feeling of injustice perpetrated against the Inuit people by previous Danish governments.

Relations between Greenland and Denmark have been strained over the past decade by revelations of historical misconduct by the state. These include removing Inuit children from their families and an involuntary contraception campaign directed towards Greenlandic women and young girls. 

Despite these policies taking place in the 1960s and 1970s, there's still enough bitterness to fuel 143 women to take legal action as they attempt to sue the Danish government.  

"I think this is just devastating," says Greenland's outgoing minister for equality and justice, Naaja Nathanielsen. "It's a violation of our rights, of the women's rights, but also of our rights as a people."

In 2024, a group of women began to demand a collective payment of more than $620,000 for what they describe as a violation of their human rights.

Officials in Greenland's Center for Public Health were asked to comment, but declined to be interviewed.

Birger Poppel is a Dane by nationality, but has lived and worked through most of his adult life in Greenland. Like many, he has a deep regard and affection for Greenland and the Inuit people. He's also the island's former chief statistician.

"More than 50 years has gone and so many women have been affected, some have not been able to give birth to children," he says. 

"Some have had trauma, all the time. And so many violations happened back then,  that it hasn't been out in the open until a few years ago."

Danish authorities are accused of deliberately trying to reduce Greenland's population through what some have described as a "large-scale" contraceptive campaign. Women, and underage girls before they were sexually active, were fitted with intrauterine devices or 'coils' to stop them becoming pregnant.

Pipaluk Lynge is a member of the Greenlandic Parliament for the Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community of the People) party.

"The females that put contraception in their bodies are still alive," she says. "They're here. They don't have kids. They don't have grandkids, but they still feel it. And we are so small communities. We know them. Some of them are our grandmother, sister."

Lifelong trauma

One woman, who had been affected as a 14-year-old girl, explained in detail what happened to her, and how – as well as the deep and lasting impacts it's had on her life. She believes her mother wasn't informed, or any parental consent was given. 

She didn't want to talk on camera, as it would mean re-living her pain – she said she'd suffered physical and mental trauma throughout her adult life, impacting her private life and ability to work. 

By May this year a two-year joint investigation by health authorities in Denmark and Greenland will conclude what precisely did happen between 1966 and 1970 - and possibly later than that. 

It should reveal why contraceptive coils were inserted, often without consent, into women and underage girls - and how almost half the island's women of child-bearing age may have been affected at that time. That could be as many as 4,500 people. Crucially, testimonies from women and children at the time are being documented.

Naaja Nathanielsen, who remains as member of the Greenlandic Parliament after the recent election says,

"Imagine that you, as a 14-year-old girl, were given this spiral coil," she says. "You're not sexually active. You weren't asked. And it caused all sorts of problems, and you cannot become a mother – some of them have difficulties becoming mothers. 

"I think there were definitely violations going on. And we want those fully uncovered, and we want apologies for the women, and we want compensation for the women."

It's been called Greenland's 'dark secret' – and perhaps it's Denmark's, too. Details only became public after a June 2021 article in Arnanut magazine written by Naja Lyberth, who works as a psychologist in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland's autonomous Danish territory. 

Copenhagen-based journalists Anne Pilegaard Petersen and Celine Klint decided to dig deeper into the story, and were surprised by the lack of information about the policy.

Pipaluk Lynge says that whatever is eventually published about this extraordinary policy, it may not bring closure to so many affected: "I don't think the scars in our souls would be compensated over money or an apology."