Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has issued a long-awaited apology to the Greenlandic women and their families affected by what she called systematic discrimination during a contraceptive campaign.
During the 1960s and 70s thousands of Inuit women and girls as young as 12 were fitted with contraceptive devices, as part of a birth-control programme administered by Danish doctors.
We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility, Frederiksen said of the scandal.
On behalf of Denmark, I would like to say sorry, she said, acknowledging that victims had experienced both physical and psychological harm.
The scale of the birth-control programme was first brought to light in 2022, by an investigative podcast called Spiralkampagnen - the coil campaign.
The device used is commonly known as a coil and is placed inside the womb to prevent pregnancy.
Many women reported being fitted with an intra-uterine device (IUD) without their knowledge or consent.
Records from the national archives showed that, between 1966 and 1970, 4,500 women and girls, some as young as 13, had an IUD implanted. Few were aware of the campaign, prompting shock and anger.
This apology comes amid a growing call for compensation and recognition of the harms caused by this program, which has drawn comparisons to historic injustices faced by Indigenous populations.
