Greenland Rejects USNS Mercy

When President Trump launched his campaign to acquire Greenland, Danish politicians feared he might send troops. They never showed up, but Trump’s offer to send the USNS Mercy hospital ship to Greenland has now been rejected.

“President Trump’s idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland has been noted,” said Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen in an internet post on Sunday. “But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. It is a deliberate choice.” That requires some explanation.

There is no such thing as “free” health care; in Greenland and Denmark, it is paid for by taxpayers. Greenland and Denmark practice government-monopoly health care, under which people get only the care the government wants them to have. In the case of Greenland, the government has imposed what the people don’t want.

From 1966 to 1970, Danish doctors forced intrauterine devices (IUDs) on thousands of women and girls as young as 12. The forced procedure left many women sterile, and the practice continued until 1992, when Greenland gained control of its healthcare system.

Last year, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen proclaimed, “We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility.” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen apologized “for the harm and abuse that may have been inflicted on several women after we took over responsibility for our healthcare system.”

The forced IUD campaign (Spiralkampagnen) was government policy, and cases are still pending in court. In these circumstances, Greenland’s prime minister might welcome an American hospital ship, which Trump has also sent stateside.

In April 2020, during the COVID outbreak, President Trump sent the USNS Comfort hospital ship to New York. By the end of the month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the ship was no longer needed and that the stress on the hospital was easing, though for a reason.

Cuomo sent senior patients into nursing homes, and according to a report by Attorney General Letitia James, thousands more may have died than the governor claimed. Gov. Cuomo defended his pandemic response, and in a CNN appearance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984,  declined to say whether sending hospital patients into nursing homes was official government policy.

As it happened, Dr. Fauci was already on record that New York responded “properly” and “correctly” to the pandemic. So in reality, the USNS Comfort was still needed in New York and elsewhere. In 2026, the USNS Mercy could doubtless do some good in Greenland, but there is a reason politicians won’t accept the American hospital ship.

Even when government-monopoly health care performs poorly, forcing IUD devices on thousands of women, politicians still hail it as the best. In a similar style, Dr. Fauci claimed his policies were above reproach and that critics attacked him only because he represented science.

On his last day in the White House, Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Fauci without indicating what crime he may have committed. In America and Greenland, moving forward, it’s all about memory against forgetting.