Denmark’s parliament opened debate on Friday on a bill that would pay 300,000 kroner to Greenlandic women and girls fitted with contraceptive coils without consent.
The bill went to its first reading in the Folketing in Copenhagen on August 14, 2026. DR reports that one of the women covered by the proposal, Uullat Bach, followed the debate on the parliamentary television channel from her dining room, 3,500 kilometers away.
Bach told DR she was 15 years old in 1977, when a copper coil was inserted during a medical examination in September of that year. As she remembers it, neither she nor her adoptive parents knew what had happened. On Christmas Day she collapsed with severe abdominal pain and spent two weeks in the hospital with a pelvic infection, and her medical records show that doctors removed the device.
Bach has shown DR examinations and records indicating scarring in her lower abdomen. She had one son after several ectopic pregnancies and became a grandmother two years ago. She said compensation would mean recognition of what she was subjected to.
Thousands of women affected
From the 1960s and for decades afterward, the Danish-run health service in Greenland fitted thousands of Greenlanders with contraception to slow population growth. According to DR, more than 4,000 girls and women received coils between 1966 and the end of 1970, roughly every second Greenlandic woman of childbearing age. How many had given consent is not known.
The BBC reports that the official investigation reached the same minimum figure of at least 4,000 women by 1970. In more than 300 examined cases, girls as young as 12 were fitted with the device without their awareness or consent, according to the inquiry as summarized by the broadcaster.
The stated aim was to halt the rise in young, unmarried mothers and secure welfare levels. DR notes that figures from Greenland Statistics show the birth rate roughly halved between 1965 and 1975. Cases involving children as young as 13 are among those documented.
Why the bill is being debated now
Bloomberg reported on December 10, 2025, that a broad parliamentary majority had agreed on a compensation system paying victims 300,000 kroner each, backed by the health ministry. The bill now before the Folketing follows that agreement.
The New York Times reported on August 27, 2025, that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued a formal apology over the scandal. The apology came after years of pressure from victims and Greenlandic politicians.
Bach told DR that news reports suggesting the women are only after money are painful to read. She added that she understands why some Danes question paying through taxes, but asked who else would cover it.
