Greenland spiral reports may give Trump ammunition against Denmark

Two reports on the Danish state’s role in inserting contraceptive spirals in Greenlandic girls and women could give US President Donald Trump material to criticise Denmark, DR reports.

Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the reports could be highly damaging for Denmark, regardless of their conclusions.

“The harsher the conclusions are in the reports on genocide, the more ammunition Donald Trump and the US have to criticise Denmark’s treatment of Greenland,” he said.

The reports examine whether the events in the spiral case can be described as genocide. The Greenlandic government, Naalakkersuisut, appointed an expert group to investigate the question.

The group originally consisted of four people, but professional disagreements led to the publication of two separate reports. Their conclusions will be presented on Friday afternoon.

A historical report published last year found that Greenland’s health service, which was under Danish control until 1992, had inserted spirals in large numbers of Greenlandic girls and women, often without their consent. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen later apologised on behalf of Denmark.

Søndergaard said the reports would likely be used in Washington as part of efforts to create division between Denmark and Greenland. Trump has said he wants Greenland to come under American control.

“The fact that the reports are being published, and that they are being published at this time, gives Trump an opportunity to create division,” he said.

He also warned that Trump and members of his administration had shown a willingness to exaggerate and distort information.

The spiral programme

During the 1950s and 1960s, Greenland’s population grew. The number of births peaked in 1966, when 1,781 children were born, nearly 80 per cent more than 15 years earlier.

Between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 spirals were inserted over five years in a large proportion of the 9,000 women of childbearing age living in Greenland at the time. In 1970, the law was changed to allow doctors in Greenland to advise girls aged 15 and over about contraception without their parents’ consent.

In a speech to the Danish parliament that year, Greenland’s then minister A.C. Normann said the birth rate was falling, due in no small part to the spirals.

By 1974, the Danish state was aware that it risked criticism over the spirals at a United Nations conference. The conference strongly criticised family planning in formerly colonised countries and called for everyone to have the right to decide how many children they wanted and when to have them.

Uncertain whether Trump will comment

The United States has its own documented history of mistreatment of Indigenous people, including a large system of boarding schools that removed Indigenous children from their families for the purpose of assimilation.

Søndergaard said he did not believe this history would prevent Trump from using the case to his own advantage.

Derek Beach, a professor of political science at Aarhus University, said it was uncertain whether Trump would comment on the reports. He said any briefing from the Danish embassy in Washington might not reach the president because there was no clear procedure or overall strategy for handling such matters.

Beach said Trump might react if he came across the reports or someone brought them to his attention. In that case, he could post on Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, criticising Denmark and arguing that Greenland should become American, Beach said.