Tears and trauma: Greenlandic women recall forced contraception as a nation seeks forgiveness

Copenhagen, Denmark – At 13, Katrine Petersen was equipped with a contraceptive device by Danish doctors without his consent.

She had become pregnant and after the doctors of the Green City of Manitsoq interrupted her pregnancy, they equipped it with an intrauterine contraceptive device, commonly called Diu, or coil.

Now 52 years old and living in Denmark, Petersen remembers that she had said that she had been equipped with the aircraft before leaving the hospital.

“Because of my age, I didn’t know what to do,” she said in tears. “I kept it in me and I never talked about it.”

Petersen said that his trauma had led to “anger, depression and too much to drink”, when she suppressed memories of her experiences and did not speak with doctors.

Later in life, after her marriage, she could not have children.

During a ceremony in the capital of Nuuk du Greenland on Wednesday, the Danish Prime Minister puts Frederiksen and his counterpart from Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, will offer their official apologies for the roles of their governments in the ill-treatment of the Aboriginal girls of Greenlanders, with cases dating from the invasive counterpart.

“We cannot change what has happened, but we can assume responsibilities and we can create the conditions of reconciliation with the past,” said Frederiksen in a statement published on Monday, adding that the Danish government intended to establish a reconciliation fund to financially compensate for the victims.

Last month, Denmark and Greenland already published apologies for their roles in the bad studies of women and girls just before the publication of an independent abuse survey.

The event arrives at a difficult time with the American president Donald Trump operating divisions between Denmark and Greenland as she seeks an American influence, even jurisdiction on the territory.

Meanwhile, Denmark sought to appease the independence movement in Greenland, but the historical abuses committed by the former colonial power tainted their efforts during a rapprochement.

Greenland, which is part of the Danish kingdom, was a colony under the Crown of Denmark until 1953, when it became a province in the Scandinavian country. In 1979, the island obtained an internal regulations and 30 years later, Greenland became an autonomous entity.

The forced contraception of indigenous women and girls was one of the centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized the Greenlanders and their families.

Politicians included the abolition of young inits in their parents to be administered to Danish host families for controversial rehabilitation and tests of parental competence that led to the forced separation of Greenlanders.

An independent investigation, published earlier this month, revealed that the victims of Inuit, aged 12 and under, were either equipped with IUD or hormonal contraception injections. They were not informed of the details of the procedure, and they did not give their consent.

Some have described traumatic experiences that have left them feelings of shame as well as physical side effects, pain and bleeding with serious infections.

While the report covered the experiences of 354 women who spoke with investigators, the Danish authorities say more than 4,000 women and girls – half of fertile women in Greenland at the time – received IUDs between the 1960s and the mid -1970s. It is not known how many of these cases were lacking in consent.

“Of course, I think of all the women who have been treated like me,” said Petersen, who had his IUD removed earlier this year, after not having talked about his experiences for over 30 years. “I feel with my female colleagues in this episode of our life.”

The alleged objective of forced contraception was to limit the population growth of Greenland by preventing pregnancies. The population of the Arctic Island increased quickly at the time due to better living conditions and better health care. Greenland resumed its own health care programs in 1992.

KISTINE Berthelsen, 66, who now lives in Copenhagen, will attend the event on Wednesday in Nuuk. She believes she was 14 years old when she was equipped with a Greenland IUD. She remembers having been taken to the hospital, but not having reason. Later, she remembers that she had “endless pain”.

At 34, she gave birth to a son, but believes that two pregnancies that have followed are the result of complications caused by contraception.

“Of course, I am angry with the Danish state because of this act,” said Berthelsen, while she was packing a suitcase for her flight to Greenland. “I wanted to join, so I reserved a single way for Nuuk.”

For Berthelsen, now retired, the official apology arrive at the “good time”.

“I am ready for reconciliation because it will help me,” she said. “It will be personally a big event for me, and I’m sure it will facilitate.”