Forced Contraception in Greenland: Lawsuit, Apology, and Compensation

Between 1960 and 1991, Danish health authorities fitted an estimated 4,500 Inuit women and girls in Greenland with intrauterine devices, often without their knowledge or consent, in what became known as the Spiral Case. The Greenland forced contraception scandal produced a lawsuit by 143 women in March 2024, a written apology from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in August 2025, an in-person apology in Nuuk that September, and a compensation agreement reached by the Danish parliament in December 2025 that pays each eligible woman 300,000 kroner (about £35,000).¹

What Danish Authorities Did

Denmark ran Greenland’s healthcare system from the colonial period through 1992. During a period of rapid population growth, Danish authorities launched a program to limit births among Greenland’s Inuit population, and starting in the mid-1960s Danish doctors inserted IUDs or administered hormonal birth control injections, frequently without informing patients of the procedure.² Many of those affected were teenagers living in school dormitories. Some were as young as twelve.³

By the end of 1970, independent researchers found that at least 4,070 women and girls had been fitted with IUDs, a figure corresponding to roughly every other Greenlandic-born woman of childbearing age at the time.⁴ The procedures took place both in Greenland and at boarding schools in Denmark where Greenlandic students were enrolled.³ The most intensive years were the 1960s and 1970s, but the practice continued at a lower level into the early 1990s.⁵

What Survivors Experienced

Hedvig Frederiksen was pulled from her school dormitory in Paamiut in 1974, at age fourteen, and taken to a hospital where doctors inserted an IUD. She later suffered a ruptured fallopian tube and significant blood loss. Bula Larsen, also fourteen when she was fitted, described the pain as feeling “like I had shattered glass in my abdomen.” She learned later that the procedure had left her permanently sterile.⁶ Katrine Petersen was thirteen when doctors in Maniitsoq fitted her with a device after terminating a pregnancy without her consent. She suppressed the memory for more than thirty years and was never able to have children.⁷

Health complications reported by survivors include chronic pain, severe infections, bleeding, and infertility. Some women removed the devices themselves when doctors refused to take them out.⁵

For decades most survivors did not speak. Psychologist Naja Lyberth, who was fourteen when she was fitted with an IUD, said shame and guilt kept women silent and described them as “frozen in our bodies for decades.”⁸ She began speaking publicly around 2017 on social media, and a Facebook group she helped establish gave survivors a place to find each other.⁶ In May 2022, the Danish national broadcaster DR published a podcast series called Spiralkampagnen that pushed the issue into wide public view and prompted political demands for an official inquiry.⁹

The Investigation and Lawsuit

In 2022, the Danish and Greenlandic governments jointly launched an independent investigation into the practices from 1960 to 1991. Investigators gathered testimony from 354 women, though they noted the true number of victims was far larger.⁷

In October 2023, Lyberth and 66 other women submitted a compensation claim to Prime Minister Frederiksen’s office, each seeking 300,000 Danish kroner (about $42,000). Their lawyer, Mads Pramming, warned they would go to court if the government delayed.¹⁰¹¹¹²

The lawsuit alleged that Danish health authorities violated the women’s human rights by performing the procedures without informed consent. Legal scholars have identified potential breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights, including Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 8 (right to private and family life), and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).³

The Apology and Compensation Agreement

On August 27, 2025, Prime Minister Frederiksen issued a written apology acknowledging that the women had suffered “systematic discrimination” and “physical and psychological harm” under the Danish healthcare system, and extended it to cover “other dark chapters” involving mistreatment of Greenlanders.¹³ On September 22, 2025, she announced a reconciliation fund. Two days later she flew to Nuuk to deliver an in-person apology at the Nuuk Cultural Centre. “It’s a betrayal that had major consequences for Greenlandic girls,” she said. “On behalf of Denmark, I apologize.”¹⁴

In December 2025, the Danish parliament reached the formal compensation agreement. Each eligible woman is entitled to 300,000 kroner (approximately £35,000). The agreement is scaled to the estimated 4,500 women who were fitted with IUDs without knowledge or consent between 1960 and 1991. To qualify, an applicant must show she lived in Greenland during the relevant period, provide a credible account, and declare under oath that the procedure occurred without her consent. Applications are scheduled to open in April 2026, with the enabling legislation taking effect in June 2026.¹

Danish Health and Interior Minister Sophie Løhde called the scandal a “dark chapter” and said that while compensation “cannot remove the pain,” it was intended to “acknowledge and apologise” for what the women experienced.¹

What Remains Unresolved

A separate inquiry into the legal implications of the program, including whether it amounted to genocide, was reported to be scheduled for publication in early 2026.¹⁴

Some scholars and advocates argue the individual payouts are not enough. A February 2026 analysis in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs contended that Denmark’s approach relies too heavily on individual compensation while ignoring the collective harm done to the Inuit community, and called for communal reparations including community development funds for education, healthcare, and cultural restoration, drawing on models used by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for indigenous peoples. Whether the case could still be taken to the European Court of Human Rights remains open, though the same analysis noted that the ECtHR’s subsidiarity principle may block applications if Denmark’s domestic redress is deemed sufficient.³

1
The Guardian. Greenlandic Women Claim Victory in Legal Fight With Denmark Over Forced IUD Scandal
2
PBS NewsHour. Hundreds of Greenlandic Women and Girls Were Forcibly Given Contraception Between 1960 and 1991, Report Says
3
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. The Greenlandic Forced Contraception Cases: Apologies, Compensation, and Beyond
4
Euronews. Denmark to Offer Payouts to Greenlandic Women Subject to Forced Contraception
5
New York Times. Greenland Denmark Forced Contraception
6
The Guardian. I Was Only a Child: Greenlandic Women Tell of Trauma of Forced Contraception
7
MPR News. Greenlandic Women Still Suffer From the Trauma of Forced Contraception
8
UNRIC. Speaking Up for Women in Greenland: Spiral Case — We Were Frozen in Our Bodies for Decades
9
Arctic Today. Denmark’s History of Forced Birth Control in Greenland
10
BBC. Greenlandic Women Seek Compensation Over Involuntary Birth Control
11
The Guardian. Greenlandic Women Sue Danish State for Contraceptive Violation
12
BBC. Denmark Apologizes to Greenland Over Forced Contraception
13
New York Times. Denmark Involuntary Birth Control Greenland Apology
14
Le Monde. Danish Prime Minister Apologizes to Greenland Women Subjected to Forced Contraception