Denmark and Greenland have formally agreed to launch a two-year investigation into birth control practices carried out for many years by Danish doctors on Inuit Greenlanders without their consent or proper explanation. Scandinavian countries had decades-long eugenics policies that lasted until the 1970s.

Thousands of Inuit women and girls were fitted with an intrauterine device (IUD), commonly known as a coil, during the 1960s and 70s, to prevent pregnancy.

A recent podcast, Spiralkampagnen (“coil campaign”), found records indicating that up to 4,500 women and girls – roughly half of all fertile females – had an IUD implanted in Greenland between 1966 and 1970. But the procedures continued into the mid-1970s.

Of these, it is unclear how many cases lacked consent or proper explanation.

Among those affected were girls as young as 12, and several have stated publicly that they were not properly informed. Some women unable to have children suspect the coil is to blame.