Denmark Forcibly Sterilized Women in Greenland
Greenland made me in the news today for an entirely different reason than President Donald Trump.
Denmark, long a proponent of abortion, is facing reckoning for its role in forcibly sterilizing Greenlandic women and girls as part of a decades-long population control effort that pro-life advocates condemn as a grave violation of human dignity and life.
A report published last September detailed the accounts of over 350 women and girls who were subjected to hormonal contraceptive injections or intrauterine devices (IUDs) without their consent, and in some instances without their knowledge, leading to infertility and severe health complications.
The program, which spanned from the 1960s until after Greenland assumed control of its health services in 1991, aimed to limit population growth in the Danish territory. Victims have described the actions as an attempt to diminish and control the Inuit population.
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Amarok Petersen, who discovered an IUD had been inserted when she was just 13 after seeking treatment for severe uterine problems, endured multiple surgeries, including the removal of her fallopian tubes without consent.
Petersen told the New York Post that Denmark “wanted us smaller” and “easier to manage.”
In advance of the report’s release, the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland issued a joint apology on behalf of their governments. Late last year, Greenlandic victims secured a landmark lawsuit victory against the Danish government, granting them monetary compensation.
The revelations underscore a darker side of Denmark’s reproductive policies, which pro-life critics argue reflect a eugenics mindset that devalues certain lives.
In a related context, Denmark’s aggressive prenatal screening program, implemented in 2004, has resulted in the abortion of more than 95% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome, with only 18 such children born in 2019.
This near-elimination of births with Down syndrome highlights societal judgments about human worth, as one observer noted: “The decisions parents make after prenatal testing are private and individual ones. But when the decisions so overwhelmingly swing one way—to abort—it does seem to reflect something more: an entire society’s judgment about the lives of people with Down syndrome.”
Researcher Stina Lou, reflecting on cultural attitudes, said: “I think it’s because we as a society like to think of ourselves as inclusive. We are a rich society, and we think it’s important that different types of people should be here.”
Yet, Lou also observed the internal conflict for some women: “And for some of the women who end up choosing abortion, their own self-understanding is a little shaken, because they have to accept they aren’t the kind of person like they thought. They were not the type of person who would choose to have a child with a disability.”
Pro-life advocates point to these practices as evidence of systemic bias, where medical systems prioritize achievement over inherent human value.
Stephanie Meredith, director of the National Center for Prenatal and Postnatal Resources at the University of Kentucky, emphasized qualities beyond accomplishment: “It doesn’t have to do with accomplishment. It has to do with caring about another human being.”
The forced sterilizations and high abortion rates for fetal anomalies draw parallels in pro-life critiques, framing Denmark’s policies as undermining the sanctity of life and coercing vulnerable populations under the guise of choice and progress.
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