More than 140 Greenlandic women sue Denmark over forced contraception | outside

According to their lawyer Mads Braming, no response was received to the compensation claim made by the women in October last year. Dozens of Inuit women then demanded compensation of 300,000 Danish kroner (about 40,000 euros). “Their human rights have been violated,” Braming said. “They themselves are proof of that.”

“After filing claims for compensation, more women came forward. The oldest was 85 years old,” Bramming said. During the period of forced contraception, about 4,500 women were fitted with IUDs without their consent or that of their families. Until recently, gynecologists in Greenland discovered Contraceptives for women who didn't know they were wearing them.

In the late 1960s, Denmark implemented a contraception policy to reduce the birth rate on the Arctic island. Although the area has not been colonized since 1953, it has remained under Danish control. Greenland gained the status of an autonomous region in 2009.

A series of podcasts based on the National Archives and broadcast in the spring of 2022 by Danish public broadcaster DR revealed the scale of the campaign. The committee investigating contraceptive policy, which began last year, must publish its findings in 2025. “With regard to their case, the committee and its findings are not important,” the lawyer said. He added: “It will not rule whether their rights have been violated or not, but the court will be able to do so.”

In 2022, six Inuit received an apology and compensation, more than seventy years after being separated from their families to participate in an experiment to create a Danish-speaking elite on the island.

Read also. The GP sterilizes men in the most friendly way: “This technique is still relatively unknown in the Netherlands” (+)