Greenland follows and exceeds Denmark in abortion liberality. With President-elect Donald Trump’s sights set on the icy territory, U.S. leadership could take strides toward making Greenland more pro-life against its Danish influence.
As it is, Greenland’s healthcare policy is near-identical to Denmark’s, its ruling country: Socialized medicine, wherein services are free and provided by the government. This system was run by Denmark until Greenland took control of health policy for itself in 1992. When it did so, Greenland kept the universal health system it inherited from Denmark, and it remains in place today.
Abortion is inevitably counted among the services considered “healthcare.” Given the socialized system, abortion is little restricted and matches Denmark’s full legalization without limits for risks to life or health, economic reasons, and cases of rape. Such arguments for abortion are easy to fabricate, and they often supersede the lame-duck limit of 12 weeks. And so it is: Greenland has the highest abortion rate in the world, at about 100 abortions per 1,000 women in 2023, which is more abortions performed than the number of live births, as has been the case in Greenland for many years.
Contrast these numbers with those of Denmark: Even as a small country of 57,000, Greenland’s abortion rate is more than six times Denmark’s population of 5.9 million.
Some of the problems lie with Greenlanders’ preferences, but much of it has to do with Denmark’s influence on the country. The overwhelming abortion rate is an obvious result of Danish persuasions infused into the Greenland government — a socialized healthcare system is one example.
Beyond that, Denmark has a darker history of interference with Greenland’s population. The “coil campaign” of the 1960s and 70s describes incidences of Denmark implanting Inuit Greenland girls as young as 12 years old with intrauterine devices of birth control. The scandal produced an inquiry that will conclude in May 2025, as many of the women have said the procedure was nonconsensual and have sued for compensation. In the 1950s, Denmark initiated the “Little Danes” program, which sent 22 Greenland children to live in Denmark and be raised with a “Danish mindset” so they might return as examples of model citizens.
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It is not too far off to conclude that Greenlanders’ experiences with Danish population control experiments have pushed them even further to the Left in retention of “bodily autonomy,” and the effect comes through in the country’s abortion rate. These Greenland experiences are not of the sort of imagined oppression American women allege — the IUD case was a real and malicious betrayal. (Never mind for now that some of the Inuit women may have been implanted with the device unknowingly after an abortion procedure.)
Enter Trump, whose influence, as we have learned again and again, is not to be underestimated. Who knows whether the acquisition of Greenland will pan out or how Trump will choose to interact with the country — there is real staying power for the more pro-life ethos of his administration. It would probably take many years. Although Denmark’s abortion policy is sadly not so different from some U.S. states’, it would be worth introducing Greenland to a system more geared toward birth.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
