Thousands of Inuit women in Greenland are now eligible to receive financial compensation due to a long-standing Danish birth control initiative that involuntarily inserted intrauterine devices (IUDs). This development has sparked optimism among Inuit women in Canada who have faced similar circumstances, hoping for an apology from their own government.
The Danish government recently approved a bill allowing for the compensation, approximately a year after the country’s prime minister expressed regret over the historical birth control program. A joint Greenlandic-Danish inquiry in 2025 revealed that between 1966 and 1991, about 4,000 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 12, underwent forced sterilizations, often without their consent.
Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic member of parliament in the Danish government, highlighted that the repercussions of this dark period in history continue to impact women across the country today, causing significant trauma. She noted a shift towards higher abortion rates instead of utilizing alternative contraceptive methods, affecting multiple generations.
The Danish government’s objective behind the program was to lower birth rates and family sizes on the island. Women who were part of the program and received IUDs are now entitled to a one-time payment of around $64,000 CAD. However, some Greenlandic politicians expressed dissatisfaction with the delayed compensation, emphasizing the urgency of addressing the issue promptly.
In Canada, the recent actions by the Danish government have raised hopes that the federal government may follow suit. For years, numerous Indigenous women in Canada underwent forced or coerced sterilization, with these practices persisting beyond the 1990s. Reports from 2022 and 2021 shed light on the deliberate efforts by eugenics laws and government policies to reduce births in Indigenous communities.
Cecilia Papak, an Inuk woman in Rankin Inlet, shared her experience of being coerced into sterilization in the late 1970s after medical professionals recommended a hysterectomy. She expressed disappointment and fear induced by the pressure to undergo surgery to prevent further childbirth, reflecting on how she might have had more children if not for the coercion.
While the Canadian government has yet to issue a formal apology regarding forced sterilization of Indigenous women, Papak remains hopeful that the Danish government’s actions will prompt Ottawa to offer apologies and compensation. Several class-action lawsuits have been initiated in Canada, including cases against the federal government, with legislative changes made in June to criminalize forced and coerced sterilization.
Given the shared history of forced sterilization in Greenland and Canada, Qarsoq Høegh-Dam emphasized the importance of mutual learning and communication between the two countries to address this common struggle effectively. He stressed the need for both nations to collaborate and draw lessons from each other to navigate this global issue.