Danish Parliament considers compensation for Greenlandic women given IUDs without consent

The Danish Parliament is due to hold the first reading of a bill offering 300,000 kroner in compensation to Greenlandic women who were given contraceptive devices without their consent, DR reports.

Uullat Bach, who believes an IUD caused a severe infection and damaged her ovaries, says the treatment made it difficult for her to have more children. She has shown DR medical examinations and records that she says support her account.

Bach was adopted and had hoped to build a large family. She eventually had one son, whom she calls her “golden child”, after several unsuccessful attempts to become pregnant and several ectopic pregnancies.

She says Danish doctors inserted an IUD when she was 15 in 1977, without her or her adoptive parents knowing. She remembers not being sexually active at the time and says she did not even know what an IUD was.

On Christmas Day that year, Bach experienced severe abdominal pain while sitting with her parents in church. She was taken to hospital and spent two weeks there with an infection in her reproductive organs. Her medical records show that doctors removed the copper IUD that had been inserted several months earlier.

“It is hard to read. But it is good to have confirmation that it is true. That it happened,” Bach says.

Thousands of women affected

More than 4,000 Greenlandic girls and women are estimated to have had IUDs inserted between 1966 and the end of 1970. That was about half of Greenlandic women of childbearing age. It is not known how many consented.

Accounts from women such as Bach suggest the actual number may be considerably higher. The policy was intended to stop the increase in the number of young, unmarried mothers and ensure a sufficiently high level of welfare in Greenland.

According to figures from Statistics Greenland, the birth rate was almost halved between 1965 and 1975.

In 2025, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologised. Bach says, however, that she is hurt when she reads that some people believe the women are only seeking money.

“I have been harmed. I think it crosses a boundary. Where are my rights?” she says.

Bach says she understands why some Danes question whether taxpayers should pay the compensation, but adds: “Why should they pay for something the state did? But who else should do it?”

Looking ahead

Bach says she feels fortunate to have a son and a grandchild, born two years ago, when she considers the many other women who were unable to have children.

She would like Greenland to become more independent but also considers cooperation between Denmark and Greenland important, particularly with the United States showing increased interest.

Once the case is concluded and she has received recognition and compensation, Bach says she intends to look ahead.

“I am not a bitter person. What happened has happened. If I am to achieve anything, I have to cooperate with those who have wronged me,” she says.