Denmark removes children from biological parents at extreme rates compared to Nordic neighbours

Denmark forcibly removes children from their biological parents at a far higher rate than any other Scandinavian country, with the strictest legislation in the region cutting all contact between adopted children and their birth families, according to a report by Danish broadcaster DR.

Research by Amalie Sehested Rom, a PhD fellow at Roskilde University studying forced adoptions, shows that roughly two-thirds of Danish adoption cases involving state removal are anonymous—completely severing ties between children and their biological parents. “Danish practice is extreme in how it totally cuts off the child’s kinship with their biological parents,” she said. “The political discourse has been that these parents are so unfit that the child gains no value from knowing them at all.”

Her findings, based on years of adoption case reviews in Denmark and Norway, reveal that while Norway also uses forced adoption, Denmark’s scale is unmatched in Scandinavia. A report by the Danish Institute for Human Rights further questions whether forced adoption is unequivocally the best solution for children in long-term care.

The policy aligns with a 2020 pledge by then-Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who vowed in her New Year’s speech to double the number of forced adoptions to give vulnerable children “security, love, and stability.” Since then, the annual number has surged from 18 to 39 last year. The Social Democrats declined DR’s request for comment on the practice, now described by researchers as “extreme.”

Critics argue the system privatizes child welfare, transferring responsibility—and funding—from public care to adoptive families who may lack specialized support. “It’s a massive privatization where you take a child’s entire life and place a highly complex task into a private family,” Sehested Rom said. Unlike foster care, adoptive families receive no mandatory training or financial support, and little research exists on how these children fare long-term.

Some Danish children experience multiple home placements before adoption, contrasting with Norway’s model, where children first live with a foster family for 3–4 years before potential adoption. A recent audit by Denmark’s Rigsrevisionen also uncovered errors in numerous child placement cases.

Advocacy groups like Adoption & Samfund are pushing for reform, urging an end to closed, anonymous adoptions. “It doesn’t belong in Denmark anymore, given children’s right to identity,” said chair Sanne Vindahl Nyvang, adding that biological parents—though unfit for full-time care—often have resources for occasional contact. The far-right Danmarksdemokraterne party has called for a complete overhaul, citing “serious systemic failures” and comparing children to “pawns being moved around.”

DR’s documentary series Når staten bortadopterer (When the State Adopts Away) profiles parents like Zafia Møller Schmidt, who said goodbye to her newborn in the hospital, knowing she would never see the child again.