Spiral case

The spiral case (alternatively coil campaign, coil case or IUD case; Danish: spiralsagen or spiralkampagnen) is an ongoing investigation into a birth control campaign by the Danish government in Greenland, primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. Danish doctors placed intrauterine devices in thousands of Greenlandic Inuit girls and women, often without consent and under the direction of Danish government officials. The program was created to control Greenland's birth rate.

Greenlandic politician Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam has described the practice as genocide, and Greenland's Human Rights Council stated the campaign violated existing privacy regulations. In 2022, the Danish and Greenlandic governments agreed to hold a two-year investigation into the campaign until 1991, though some activists have spoken against the investigation's limited scope. In 2023, the investigation formally began, and 67 women sued the Danish government. The investigation is expected to conclude in 2025.

Involuntary fertility control program

Between around 1966 and 1975, thousands of Greenlandic Inuit girls and women had intrauterine devices (IUDs) inserted to control their pregnancies under the direction of the Danish government and by Danish doctors. ^[1] Half of the 9,000 women in Greenland who could have children were given IUDs in the first five years of the program; ^[2] some of the affected girls were as young as 12, ^[3] and in many cases, women (and in the case of girls, their parents) did not consent to the procedure. ^[4] For instance, Naja Lyberth was 13 or 14 years old, Elisibánguak' Jeremiasssen was 13, ^[5] and Arnannguaq Poulsen was 16 and staying in Denmark when she received hers. ^[6] All of the girls in Lyberth's class were told to have IUDs placed by a visiting doctor ^[7] and then taken to a hospital for them to be inserted. ^[8] The purpose of the campaign was to lower the birth rate in Greenland. ^[9] Thousands of girls and women ultimately had IUDs placed without their consent during the campaign. ^[8] As a result, the birth rate in Greenland was halved in just a few years. ^[3]

Portions of the campaign were unlawful. ^[7] In Greenland, it was illegal for doctors to give girls contraception without their parental consent until 1970; past 1970, it was against the law for doctors to place IUDs in girls, like Lybert, who were under 15 and had never been pregnant. ^[7] Greenland only received autonomy in its healthcare in 1991. ^[10]

Investigations and reaction

Mimi Karlsen

In 2017, Naja Lyberth was among the first people to publicly discuss the spiral campaign; she wrote on Facebook about her experiences. ^[7] In 2022, the podcast Spiralkampagnen ("Spiral Campaign"), hosted by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, ^[10] uncovered the campaign's records. ^[3] Following the podcast's release that year, politicians and human rights organisations began calling for investigations; the party Naleraq wrote legislation to investigate. ^[11] On 2 June, the Inatsisartut (Greenlandic parliament) voted to demand that the Danish government investigate the history of the campaign. ^[12] Later that year, the Danish and Greenlandic governments agreed to begin a two-year investigation. ^[13] It seeks to document the background of the birth control campaign; its implementation, including Greenlandic government involvement; the reasons the campaign began and continued; and other fertility control programs until 1991. ^[14] The investigation formally began in May 2023 and is scheduled for completion in May 2025. ^[15] The investigators are all women from Greenland and Denmark. ^[15]

The Inuit Ataqatigiit Minister of Health, Mimi Karlsen, asked women affected by the fertility control program to call Tusaannga, a social services and support hotline. ^[10] Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, a Siumut member of the Folketing (Danish parliament) called the campaign genocide. ^[4] She stated that in the Danish desire to modernise Greenland, elevating the material conditions of its residents was too expensive, so the government instituted a program to commit genocide on the population. ^[16] Danish lawyer Mads Pramming likened the case to the Little Danes experiment, a 1951 Danish operation that resettled 22 Greenlandic children in Denmark. ^[17] Lyberth said in 2022 that the campaign stole her virginity, caused her pain, may have caused complications for her later in life, and continued to traumatise her into adulthood. ^[7] According to Greenland's Human Rights Council, regulations regarding family life and privacy were violated. ^[3]

Some activists have criticised the limited scope of the campaign, which extends only to 1991. In December 2022, BBC News noted that numerous women and girls allege that this campaign continued after 1991. ^[18] Karlsen said in a BBC interview that she would forward allegations to the Greenlandic medical authorities to see if they are true and if they reflect widespread practises related to the spiral case. ^[18] At least nine women have reported post-1991 nonconsensual IUD placements to the government; medical investigators found four operations occurred without consent (three had documented consent), eight of the nine cases allegedly happened after the year 2000, and most happened while the women were under anesthesia for induced abortions. ^[19] Nivi Olsen, a Demokraatit member of the Inatsisartut, has called for the investigation to be broadened to include post-1991 birth control measures. ^[19]

In October 2023, Lyberth and 66 other women sued the Danish government for DKK 300,000 each (approximately US$ 47695). ^[20]

In March 2024, 143 women sued the Danish government and demanded 43 millioner kroner, in total. ^[21]

See also

• Godhavn inquiry – a 2011 Danish government inquiry into the conditions of children's homes between 1945 and 1976
• Little Danes experiment – 1951 forced relocation of Greenlandic Inuit children to Danish families
• Legally fatherless – Danish laws denying some Greenlandic children the right to inherit from their Danish fathers

References

Citations

1. Murray 2022; Veirum 2022.
2. Hivert 2022.
3. Murray 2022.
4. Veirum 2022.
5. Platou & Hyldal 2022.
6. Møller 2022; Murray 2022.
7. Møller 2022.
8. DR 2022.
9. Fuglsang Holm 2022.
10. Kristensen 2022a.
11. Kristensen 2022b.
12. Jyllands-Posten 2022.
13. Kristensen 2022c.
14. Murray 2022; Kristensen 2022c.
15. Kristensen 2023.
16. Veirum 2022: "blev staten også forpligtigtet til at modernisere Grønland og hæve velfærdsniveauet. Men da 'projektet' viste sig at være dyrt, besluttede den danske stat at begå folkemord blot for at spare på økonomien" [the state was also obligated to modernise Greenland and improve its welfare. But when the 'project' turned out to be expensive, the Danish state decided to commit genocide simply to save the economy].
17. Hansen 2022.
18. Jung 2022.
19. Møller 2023.
20. Koue & Møller 2023.
21. https://www.dagsavisen.no/nyheter/2024/03/29/gronlands-spiralkampanje-oppfordrer-dansk-minister-til-a-hore-ofrenes-historie/. Dagsavisen.no. Retrieved 2024-03-30

Works cited

• Fuglsang Holm, Mads Malik (5 June 2022). "Chokerende beretninger afslører, at oprindelige kvinder i Canada stadig tvangssteriliseres" [Shocking accounts reveal Indigenous women in Canada are still being forcibly sterilized]. Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (in Danish). Retrieved 12 November 2022.
• Hansen, Nanna Nørby (15 May 2022). "Grønlandske politikere reagerer på spiralsag: 'Retten til egen krop er blevet fuldstændig overskredet i de her sager'" [Greenlandic politicians react to spiral case: 'The right to one's own body has been completely exceeded in these cases']. DR (in Danish). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• Hivert, Anne-Françoise (14 July 2022). "Denmark investigates Greenland forced IUD fitting scandal". Le Monde . Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• Jung, Elaine (8 December 2022). "'Doctors fitted a contraceptive coil without my consent'". BBC News . Retrieved 13 June 2023.
• Koue, Mette; Møller, Eva-Marie (2 October 2023). "Grønlandske kvinder stævner staten: Vil have erstatning for spiralsagen" [Greenlandic women sue the state: Want compensation for the spiral case]. DR (in Danish). Retrieved 2 November 2023.
• Kristensen, Kassaaluk (15 May 2022a). "Naalakkersuisut tager afstand fra spiralkampagnen" [Cabinet distances itself from the spiral campaign]. Sermitsiaq (in Danish). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• Kristensen, Kassaaluk (17 May 2022b). "Naleraq til Inatsisartut: Start arbejdet med at udrede spiralkampagnen" [Naleraq to Inatsisartut: Begin work on unraveling the spiral campaign]. Sermitsiaq (in Danish). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• Kristensen, Kassaaluk (30 September 2022c). "Spiralsagen: Disse forhold skal undersøges" [The spiral case: These conditions must be investigated]. Sermitsiaq (in Danish). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• Kristensen, Kassaaluk (30 May 2023). "Forskerteamet fundet: Udredning om spiralsagen sættes igang" [Research team is founded: Investigation into the spiral case has begun]. Sermitsiaq (in Danish). Retrieved 13 June 2023.
• Møller, Ann-Sophie Greve (8 May 2022). "Naja Lyberth fik påtvunget spiral som 14-årig: Det føltes som om, at der var knive inden i mig" [Naja Lyberth had an IUD forced on her at the age of 14: It felt like there were knives inside me]. Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (in Danish). Retrieved 12 November 2022.
• Møller, Ann-Sophie Greve (25 September 2023). "Spiraludredning bør gå helt frem til i dag: Menneskerettigheder er overtrådt" [Spiral investigation should go until today: Human rights were violated]. Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (in Danish). Retrieved 26 September 2023.
• Murray, Adrienne (30 September 2022). "Inuit Greenlanders demand answers over Danish birth control scandal". BBC News . Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• Platou, Karline; Hyldal, Christine (10 August 2022). "Elisibánguak' tænker ikke på erstatning men håber på undskyldning fra Danmark" [Elisibánguak' is not thinking about compensation but hopes for an apology from Denmark]. Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (in Danish). Retrieved 12 November 2022.
• Veirum, Thomas Munk (10 May 2022). "Politiker: Spiral-kampagne var folkemord" [Politician: Spiral campaign was genocide]. Sermitsiaq (in Danish). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
• "Spiralkampagnen" [Spiral campaign]. DR (in Danish). 7 May 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
• "Grønland beder Danmark undersøge gammel spiralkampagne" [Greenland asks Denmark to investigate old spiral campaign]. Jyllands-Posten . Ritzau. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.