The spiral case (alternatively coil campaign, coil case or IUD case; Danish: spiralsagen or spiralkampagnen) is an ongoing investigation into a birth control campaign by the Danish government in Greenland, primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. Danish doctors placed intrauterine devices in thousands of Greenlandic Inuit girls and women, often without consent and under the direction of Danish government officials. The program was created to control Greenland's birth rate.

Greenlandic politician Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam has described the practice as genocide, and Greenland's Human Rights Council stated the campaign violated existing privacy regulations. In 2022, the Danish and Greenlandic governments agreed to hold a two-year investigation into the campaign until 1991, though some activists have spoken against the investigation's limited scope. In 2023, the investigation formally began, and 67 women sued the Danish government. The investigation is expected to conclude in 2025.

Involuntary fertility control program

Between around 1966 and 1975, thousands of Greenlandic Inuit girls and women had intrauterine devices (IUDs) inserted to control their pregnancies under the direction of the Danish government and by Danish doctors.^[1] Half of the 9,000 women in Greenland who could have children were given IUDs in the first five years of the program;^[2] some of the affected girls were as young as 12,^[3] and in many cases, women (and in the case of girls, their parents) did not consent to the procedure.^[4] For instance, Naja Lyberth was 13 or 14 years old, Elisibánguak' Jeremiasssen was 13,^[5] and Arnannguaq Poulsen was 16 and staying in Denmark when she received hers.^[6] All of the girls in Lyberth's class were told to have IUDs placed by a visiting doctor^[7] and then taken to a hospital for them to be inserted.^[8] The purpose of the campaign was to lower the birth rate in Greenland.^[9] Thousands of girls and women ultimately had IUDs placed without their consent during the campaign.^[8] As a result, the birth rate in Greenland was halved in just a few years.^[3]

Portions of the campaign were unlawful.^[7] In Greenland, it was illegal for doctors to give girls contraception without their parental consent until 1970; past 1970, it was against the law for doctors to place IUDs in girls, like Lybert, who were under 15 and had never been pregnant.^[7] Greenland only received autonomy in its healthcare in 1991.^[10]

Investigations and reaction

In 2017, Naja Lyberth was among the first people to publicly discuss the spiral campaign; she wrote on Facebook about her experiences.^[7] In 2022, the podcast Spiralkampagnen ("Spiral Campaign"), hosted by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation,^[10] uncovered the campaign's records.^[3] Following the podcast's release that year, politicians and human rights organisations began calling for investigations; the party Naleraq wrote legislation to investigate.^[11] On 2 June, the Inatsisartut (Greenlandic parliament) voted to demand that the Danish government investigate the history of the campaign.^[12] Later that year, the Danish and Greenlandic governments agreed to begin a two-year investigation.^[13] It seeks to document the background of the birth control campaign; its implementation, including Greenlandic government involvement; the reasons the campaign began and continued; and other fertility control programs until 1991.^[14] The investigation formally began in May 2023 and is scheduled for completion in May 2025.^[15] The investigators are all women from Greenland and Denmark.^[15]

The Inuit Ataqatigiit Minister of Health, Mimi Karlsen, asked women affected by the fertility control program to call Tusaannga, a social services and support hotline.^[10] Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, a Siumut member of the Folketing (Danish parliament) called the campaign genocide.^[4] She stated that in the Danish desire to modernise Greenland, elevating the material conditions of its residents was too expensive, so the government instituted a program to commit genocide on the population.^[16] Danish lawyer Mads Pramming likened the case to the Little Danes experiment, a 1951 Danish operation that resettled 22 Greenlandic children in Denmark.^[17] Lyberth said in 2022 that the campaign stole her virginity, caused her pain, may have caused complications for her later in life, and continued to traumatise her into adulthood.^[7] According to Greenland's Human Rights Council, regulations regarding family life and privacy were violated.^[3]

Some activists have criticised the limited scope of the campaign, which extends only to 1991. In December 2022, BBC News noted that numerous women and girls allege that this campaign continued after 1991.^[18] Karlsen said in a BBC interview that she would forward allegations to the Greenlandic medical authorities to see if they are true and if they reflect widespread practises related to the spiral case.^[18] At least nine women have reported post-1991 nonconsensual IUD placements to the government; medical investigators found four operations occurred without consent (three had documented consent), eight of the nine cases allegedly happened after the year 2000, and most happened while the women were under anesthesia for induced abortions.^[19] Nivi Olsen, a Demokraatit member of the Inatsisartut, has called for the investigation to be broadened to include post-1991 birth control measures.^[19]

In October 2023, Lyberth and 66 other women sued the Danish government for DKK 300,000 each (approximately US$47695).^[20]