Denmark on Wednesday officially apologized to more than 4,500 victims of the country’s forced contraception campaign, intended to reduce the birth rate of the Indigenous inuit group in Greenland.Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that while what happened cannot be changed, responsibility can be taken.”Therefore, on behalf of Denmark, I would like to say: I am sorry,” Frederiksen said in a statement.Fredriksen added that “other dark chapters” of systematic discrimination against Greenlanders also exist, and that her apology also extends to “those other failures.”What was the story behind the mistreatment of Inuit women?As part of the campaign, which took place from the 1960 until 1992, the authorities in Denmark forced some half of Greenland’s 9,000 Inuit women to wear an intrauterine device (IUD) without their consent, leaving many of the women sterile and suffering from physical or psychological problems.This came as the population in Greenland had been rapidly growing due to better living conditions and health care. Many of the women were teenagers at the time.The territory was integrated into the Danish state in 1953, with it being given home rule in 1979 and taking over control of the island’s health care from Denmark in 1992.How did Greenland’s leadership respond?About 150 women have taken Denmark to court in demand of compensation for violation of their rights. Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also apologized to the women who “have been exposed to — and lived with the consequences of — interventions you did not ask for nor had control over.”This comes a month ahead of a report expected next month about the mistreatment of Inuit women.
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