Thousands of Inuit women in Greenland are now eligible to receive financial compensation due to a Danish birth-control program that involuntarily inserted intrauterine devices (IUDs) over many years. This compensation has sparked hope among some Inuit women in Canada who have also experienced similar mistreatment, with expectations for an apology from their own government.
The Danish government recently approved a law enabling the compensation, approximately a year after the country’s prime minister expressed regret for the historical birth-control initiative. A joint Greenlandic-Danish inquiry in 2025 revealed that between 1966 and 1991, around 4,000 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 12, were subjected to forced sterilizations, often without their consent.
Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic member of parliament in Denmark, emphasized the lasting impact of this dark period on women throughout the country. She highlighted the significant trauma caused and how it still influences women’s choices today, leading to a preference for abortions over alternative contraceptive methods.
The Danish government’s objective with the program was to control birth rates and family sizes on the island by providing women with IUDs. Those who underwent this procedure are now eligible for a one-time payment of approximately $64,000 CAD. However, some Greenlandic politicians believe that this compensation should have been provided sooner.
In Canada, the recent actions taken by the Danish government have instilled hope that the federal government may also address the issue of forced sterilization. For years, numerous Indigenous women in Canada have been subjected to coerced and forced sterilizations, a practice that continued beyond the 1990s.
Reports from the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscaminque (UQAT) in 2022 documented about 22 cases of imposed sterilization in the province between 1980 and 2019. Additionally, a 2021 Senate report highlighted how eugenics laws and government policies deliberately aimed to decrease births in Indigenous communities.
Cecilia Papak, an Inuk woman from Rankin Inlet, was coerced into undergoing sterilization after being informed by doctors in the late 1970s that she needed a hysterectomy. She expressed disappointment in the government’s actions, emphasizing the pressure she felt to undergo the surgery to prolong her life, ultimately leading her to accept the procedure and cease having more children.
Despite the lack of a formal apology from the Canadian government regarding forced sterilization on Indigenous women, Papak remains hopeful that the Danish government’s recent steps will prompt Ottawa to issue its own apology and compensation. Various class-action lawsuits have been initiated in Canada, including four against the federal government, in response to these practices.
In June, forced and coerced sterilization was incorporated into the criminal code by the Canadian government. Given the shared history of forced sterilization in Greenland and Canada, Danish parliament member Qarsoq Høegh-Dam emphasized the importance of mutual learning and communication between the two countries to address this common struggle effectively.
