Maya Tekeli and Jeffrey Gettleman
Danish doctors put intrauterine devices into Greenlandic girls as young as 12 without their consent or knowledge. Some women were given injections that they claim left them infertile for life. When victims complained about severe pain, doctors refused to help, leading some to remove the IUDs themselves.
These were among the findings from a scathing report, released Tuesday, on Denmark’s past policy of forcing contraception on women and girls in Greenland, a practice that Danish officials now admit was wrong.
The report was based on personal testimonies, medical records and historical documents. Of 410 cases described in detail, 349 involved health complications.
Denmark colonized Greenland more than three centuries ago, and the gigantic island in the Arctic Ocean remains a Danish overseas territory. In the 1960s and 1970s, and to a lesser degree in the decades that followed, Danish doctors implanted IUDs in thousands of Greenlandic women and girls, in many cases without their permission.