Greenland, Denmark Agree about Investigating Contraceptive Spiral Scandal

The Danish Ministry of Health will launch an investigation into what happened during the spiral scandal and Greenland is to assist its efforts, according to KNR. Their respective ministers of health agreed on this when meeting last week.

The spiral scandal was revealed through a DR podcast series recently, revealing that Greenlandic women and girls had contraceptive spirals inserted against their will or without their consent from the mid-1960’s to far out in the 1970’s.

Greenland has also decided to establish its own investigative commission to explore the spiral scandal within a more overall framework looking into whether or not Denmark complied with the UN’s anti-colonization requirements in the years leading up to 1953.

Greenland took over responsibility for its own health politics and management from Denmark inn 1991. The investigation by the Danish Ministry of Health is to investigate the years from the 1970’s until 1991. The so-called spiral campaign led to a nearly 50 percent reduction in the number of children born in Greenland in the 1970’s.