Dozens of Greenlandic women, who say they were fitted with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge, are planning to sue the Danish state.
The group of 67 women, some of whom were just 12 when, they claim, they were fitted with an IUD by Danish doctors in attempts to reduce Greenland’s population, are among the 4 500 women and girls affected between 1966 and 1970, reports The Guardian.
The women have sought compensation of £35 000 from the government for what they say was a “violation” that has had major consequences on their lives. If the government does not comply, the women plan to take their case to court.
Naja Lyberth, who was the first woman to come forward six years ago to say she had been fitted with a coil during a school medical examination without her consent, accused the state of concerted sterilisation. Lyberth, who had difficulty falling pregnant but had a son at 35, said women should not have to wait that long for compensation for the suffering they had been forced to undergo.
If the government did not take their demands seriously, she added: “We will sue the government in court.”
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Contraception, HIV and control over black women’s bodies
Judge: ‘Therapeutic sterilisation … not eugenics’
EFF lays criminal charges over forced sterilisations
Japanese government sued for forcible sterilisation in 1970s