Greenland ’ s birth rate , average births per woman |
Paul Smith WOMEN from Greenland |
The devices were designed for women who |
indigenous women , including Bebiane , who said she went |
She now believes it was inserted when she had an |
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are demanding compensa- |
had gone through childbirth , |
to have an IUD fitted in the |
abortion at the age of 16 . |
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tion after doctors fitted them |
but they were still used on |
mid-2000s . |
Over the following years , not |
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with IUDs without either |
girls as young as 13 . |
She was 21 years old at the |
only did she experience severe |
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their consent or knowledge |
When the campaign was |
time but was told that she |
abdominal pain , but she failed |
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in an attempt to limit Inuit |
scaled back in 1974 , Green- |
already had a device fitted . |
to get pregnant , oblivious to the |
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birth rates . |
land ’ s fertility rate had fallen |
“ I remember the tears |
reasons why . |
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Records from the national |
from seven children per |
rolling down my cheeks , and |
Another Inuit woman , who |
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archives in Denmark show |
woman to around 2.3 . |
I told them that I couldn ’ t |
did not want to be named , told |
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that between 1966 and 1970 |
However , according to the |
understand how I already |
the BBC that she was put under |
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some 4500 early versions of |
BBC , the practice continued . |
had a coil in me … How could |
general anaesthetic for a proce- |
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Source : Our World in Data |
an IUD called the Lippes Loop were fitted . |
Last year , the broadcaster spoke to a series of |
I not remember when I had it put in ?” |
dure following a miscarriage .
When she regained consciousness
|
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, a nurse was |
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administering Depo-Provera |
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( medroxyprogesterone acetate ). |
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“ I didn ’ t know what it |
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was , and she didn ’ t ask me if I |
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wanted it ,” she said . |
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“ It was just that I should |
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come back to the hospital to get |
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it every three months .” |
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An independent inquiry into |
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the so-called ‘ Coil Campaign ’ |
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has already been launched by |
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the Danish Government and is |
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due to conclude in 2025 . |
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Naja Lyberth . |
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But women , some of whom |
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are in their 70s , are asking for |
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compensation now amounting |
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to around $ 67,000 each . |
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“ We are getting older and |
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we don ’ t want to wait for the |
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results of the inquiry ,” said |
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Naja Lyberth . |
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“ The oldest of us , who had |
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IUDs inserted in the 1960s , |
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were born in the 1940s and are |
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approaching 80 .” |
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Now a psychologist , she said |
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that some of the Lippes Loop |
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devices fitted had been too big |
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for the girls ’ bodies , causing |
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health complications and , in |
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some cases , infertility . |
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Other women had been un aware of the devices until they were discovered following |
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gynaecological examinations . |
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She accused the government |
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back in the 1960s and |
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’ 70s of attempting to suppress |
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Greenland ’ s population to |
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save on its welfare budget . |
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Last year , Denmark apologised |
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for the involuntary contraception |
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program and paid |
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compensation to six Inuit who |
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were taken from their families in |
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the 1950s as part of an attempt |
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to build a Danish-speaking elite |
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within Greenland . |
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Greenland ’ s health minister |
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told the BBC she was un aware that contraception was still being given to women |
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without consent . |
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Greenland has a population |
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of 57,000 . See letters , page 15 |