Denmark to pay Greenlandic women for non-consensual IUDs

The Danish Parliament is expected to approve compensation of 300,000 kroner for Greenlandic women who received contraceptive devices without their consent, DR reports. The bill is being considered for the third and final time.

The compensation scheme covers women who received contraceptive devices without consent between 1960 and 1991, when Greenland took responsibility for its own healthcare system. Applications can be submitted to Patienterstatningen until 1 September 2028.

Among those affected is Inger Platou, who says an unwanted IUD damaged her fallopian tubes and left her unable to have children. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to become pregnant, she adopted two boys from Colombia.

“We were so happy to become parents. It is a joy in life. I just had to experience it in another way,” Platou said.

She said she had always wanted to have children herself and had planned to start a family and give birth. “I have not been able to do that. It is difficult to forgive,” she said.

Platou lived in Maniitsoq in western Greenland in the late 1970s. At the age of 20, she went to a doctor to be examined for a pelvic infection. She says the doctor only told her after the examination that he had inserted an IUD.

“I was not asked,” she said. Had she been asked, she would have refused, she added.

Platou was not fully aware of what having an IUD involved. She only remembered it when an ectopic pregnancy nearly cost her her life while she was studying in Odense. She was operated on immediately, but says her reproductive system had already been badly damaged.

“They removed one fallopian tube. So I only have one left, and it does not work either because of the IUD,” she said.

The Danish state inserted IUDs in Greenlandic girls and women, in some cases as young as 13, without them or their parents knowing, understanding or giving full consent.

The previous Danish government and a broad majority in Parliament agreed to establish the compensation scheme. The Danish state apologised to the women affected in 2025.

The Greenland Human Rights Council welcomed the compensation scheme but criticised several parts of the bill. It said it was difficult to appeal a rejected application, argued that compensation should be paid for each violation rather than each woman, and said the application deadline was too short.

“We believe there should be a longer deadline. You do not know how much this will affect you, or when you will want compensation for the harm that has been caused,” said Steve Sandgreen, a council member.

Platou said she had rarely spoken publicly about the IUD and its aftermath because it felt deeply private. It was not until Greenlandic and Danish authorities began investigating the cases in 2022 that she realised many other women had experienced the same thing.

“We all thought we were the only ones this had happened to. But when all the other women came forward with their stories, I realised there had been so many of us,” she said.

Platou said 300,000 kroner would be welcome, noting that she and her family had spent more than that on adoption at the time.