Denmark’s Parenting Test Becomes the Latest Flashpoint in Greenland

Ivana Bronlund is a mother without a child.

An hour after her daughter was born in a small town in Denmark, the government took her baby.

She continues to pump milk that someone picks up and carries to the infant. She stares out the large, square windows of her apartment building and constantly imagines holding her again.

“I just wish I’d been given the chance to prove that I can be a mother,” she said.

Ms. Bronlund is 18 years old and came from a home with a history of abuse. So the Danish authorities subjected her to an extensive parental competency test that is intended to protect children but has been criticized as a harsh overreach into family life.

She is also Greenlandic, and Greenlanders have long complained that these tests are unfair. A recent study found that Greenlandic children born in Denmark are five times more likely to be taken away from their parents compared with other children in Denmark.

Denmark, which controls Greenland as an overseas territory, has tried to address this. Earlier this year, while Ms. Bronlund was pregnant, the Danish Parliament voted to modify how the parenting tests were applied to Greenlandic families.

But for reasons that still remain unclear, Ms. Bronlund wasn’t treated as the new law requires, which local officials have described as an “error.” An appeals hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.