COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark and Greenland on Wednesday apologized for their roles in the historic mistreatment of Greenlandic Indigenous girls and women, including forced contraception , in cases that date back to the 1960s.

Nearly 150 Inuit women last year sued Denmark and filed compensation claims against its health ministry, saying Danish health authorities violated their human rights when they fitted them with intrauterine contraceptive devices, or IUDs. The devices, fitted in the uterus, prevent sperm from fertilizing an egg.

Some of the women — including many who were teenagers at the time — were not aware of what happened or did not give their consent. Danish authorities last year said as many as 4,500 women and girls — reportedly half of the fertile women in Greenland at t

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