Greenlandic Woman Wins Her Baby Back in Denmark
Greenlandic Woman Wins Her Baby Back in Denmark
A young Greenlandic woman living in Denmark will regain custody of the infant girl taken from her shortly after birth. The case has become the latest flashpoint between Denmark and Greenland.
Ivana Bronlund at her home with a sonogram of her child in Hedehusene, Denmark, in September.Credit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times
By Jeffrey Gettleman and Maya Tekeli
Jeffrey Gettleman reported from London and Maya Tekeli from Copenhagen.
Sept. 22, 2025
Ivana Bronlund is getting her baby back.
Ms. Bronlund, a young Greenlandic woman, found herself thrust into the national spotlight after the authorities in her small Danish town forced her to give up her infant daughter an hour after she was born. It was the result of a complicated parenting evaluation that officials had admitted was flawed, and her case quickly flared into another sore spot between Denmark and Greenland, which is a Danish overseas territory.
On Monday, a national appeals board reversed the decision made by local officials in the municipality outside of Copenhagen where Ms. Bronlund lives.
The decision was sparse on details, citing the privacy of those involved, but the headline on a notice published Monday evening was: “The Danish National Appeals Board is reversing the decision.”
Ms. Bronlund, 18, had been fighting hard for the custody of her daughter, who was born on Aug. 11. That day, an hour after birth, the municipal authorities took the baby away and put her in foster care.
On Monday, she posted a short statement on Instagram, saying, “my heart is whole again.”
Just about any issue connected to Greenland has become a hot subject in Denmark as the Danes try to fend off insistence by President Trump that the United States take it over.
Denmark colonized Greenland, a gigantic island high up in the Arctic Sea, more than 300 years ago. Though it is no longer a colony — the Danes have granted it a large degree of autonomy — many Greenlanders still feel resentment about the colonial past and the years of discrimination that followed.
Small protests broke out over this case, and on Monday, activists celebrated the mother’s victory.
“It’s wild that it had to go this far,” said Najannguaq Hegelund, vice chairman of Sila 360, an Indigenous rights group in Denmark. “We are of course happy for Ivana and her family, but there are many other cases with the same flaws.”
Ms. Bronlund had been subjected to the full parenting evaluation process, which included interviews with psychologists, meetings with social workers, standardized psychological evaluations and I.Q. tests that measured her ability to manipulate shapes and do math problems, which she says she was never good at.
The authorities then ruled that she was “not able to ensure her child’s well-being and development” and that she had “a great need for extensive psychiatric and social support,” which her family believed was an unfair conclusion that was based on sexual abuse that Ms. Bronlund suffered as a child.
Where the authorities misstepped, according to documents and experts who analyzed her case, was applying standardized tests to her. Greenlanders living in Denmark have been complaining for years about these tests, arguing that they are biased and citing studies that show how poorly Greenlanders do on them. According to a recent study, Greenlandic children born in Denmark are five times more likely to be taken away from their parents than other children in Denmark.
In May, the Danish government put a new rule into force saying that standardized psychological tests should no longer be used when evaluating Greenlandic parents. The authorities across Denmark use these evaluations, but they are not applied to the entire population — only to families about which there are already welfare concerns. Denmark has recently strengthened child protection laws and as a result made it easier for the state to override parents and even remove a child from their home.
Members of Denmark’s Greenlandic community estimate that there are at least 15,000 people who identify as Greenlandic living in Denmark, and from now on, any Greenlandic families involved in parenting evaluations are supposed to undergo specialized screenings that are more culturally sensitive.
In Ms. Bronlund’s case, the local authorities eventually admitted that they had made an “error” in the way they handled it. The case was sent to an appeals board for a hearing last week.
The hearing took place in Copenhagen, drawing a small group of demonstrators who insisted that Ms. Bronlund be reunited with her daughter, who she has named Aviaja-Luuna. The session lasted only 30 minutes.
It is not clear when the two will be reunited. The appeals board said publicly only that it had told the municipality “of what needs to be implemented.”
In recent months, in light of Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm to “get” Greenland, as he puts it, the Danish government has taken extra steps to improve relations with the island. This week, Denmark’s prime minister is scheduled to travel there to make an official apology for wrongs committed in the past, especially against Greenlandic women.
Michael Bang Petersen, a political science professor in Aarhus, Denmark, said he didn’t think there had been any direct political involvement in Ms. Bronlund’s case, because that’s “not how the board operates.”
But, he said: “The government looks at this with satisfaction. There’s been a lot of focus in reversing patterns of injustice and discrimination, and this case had played into the overall argument that Denmark has been discriminating against Greenland and have not appreciated their particular culture.”
Amelia Nierenberg contributed reporting from London.
Jeffrey Gettleman is an international correspondent based in London covering global events. He has worked for The Times for more than 20 years.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 23, 2025, Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: Greenlandic Mother in Denmark Wins Back Her Baby. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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