In 1965, a Norwegian woman gave birth to a baby girl in a private hospital. Seven days later she returned home with a baby.

When the baby developed dark curls that made her look different from herself, Karen Rafteseth Dokken assumed she just took after her husband’s mother.

It took nearly six decades to discover the true reason: Rafteseth Dokken’s biological daughter had been mistakenly switched at birth in the maternity ward of the hospital in central Norway.

The girl she ended up raising, Mona, was not the baby she gave birth to.

The babies – one born on Feb. 14 and the other on Feb. 15, 1965 – are now 59-year-old women who together with Rafteseth Dokken are suing the state and the municipality.

In their case, which opened in the Oslo District Court on Monday, they argue that their human rights were violated when authorities discovered the error when the girls were teenagers and covered it up. They claim Norwegian authorities had undermined their right to a family life, a principle enshrined in the European human rights convention, and demand an apology and compensation.

Rafteseth Dokken, now 78, was in tears as she described learning so many years later that she got the wrong baby, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

“It was never my thought that Mona was not my daughter,” she said in court on Tuesday. “She was named Mona after my mother.”

Mona described a sense of never belonging as she grew up. That sense of uncertainty pushed her in 2021 to do a DNA test, which showed that she was not the biological daughter of those who raised her.

But the woman who raised the other baby knew long before.

A routine blood test in 1981 revealed that the girl she was raising, Linda Karin Risvik Gotaas, was not biologically related. The woman raising her, however, did not pursue a maternity case. Norwegian health authorities were informed of the mix-up in 1985, but refrained from telling the others involved.

Both women who were swapped at birth have said in interviews that it was a shock to learn about the mix-up, but the knowledge made pieces of their lives fall into place, explaining differences both in terms of appearance and demeanor.

Kristine Aarre Haanes, representing Mona, said the state “violated her right to her own identity for all these years. They kept it secret.”

Mona could have learned the truth when she was a young adult, but instead “she did not find out the truth until she was 57.”

“Her biological father has died. She has no contact with her biological mother,” added Aarre Haanes.

Circumstances surrounding the 1965 swap at Eggesboenes hospital are unclear, but media reports by NRK suggest there were several cases during the 1950s and 1960s where children were accidentally swapped at the same institution. At the time babies were kept together while their mothers rested in separate rooms.

In other cases the errors were spotted before the children were permanently placed with the wrong families, according to the reports.

An official from the Norwegian Ministry of Heath and Care Services said the state was unaware of similar cases and that there were no plans for a public inquiry.

Asgeir Nygaard, representing the Norwegian state, is fighting the case on the grounds that the 1965 switch took place in a private institution and that the health directorate in the 1980s did not have the legal authority to inform the other families when they discovered the error.

“Documentation from that time indicates that government officials found the assessments difficult, inter alia because it was legally unclear what they could do,” he wrote in a statement to The Associated Press ahead of the trial’s opening. “Therefore, in court, we will argue that there is no basis for compensation and that the claims being made are in any case statute-barred.”

The trial is scheduled to run through Thursday, but it was not clear when a ruling is expected.

A similar situation reportedly occurred in the U.S. in 1969, when two baby girls were accidentally switched at a Texas hospital, and the mistake wasn’t noticed until a DNA test was done in 2018. The women later filed a lawsuit against the corporation that later bought the hospital.

According to the DNA Diagnostics Center, in the U.S., up to 500,000 babies each year are at “potential risk of going home with the wrong parent,” but newborns inadvertently switched at birth are generally noticed almost immediately after the incident. The center says only eight incidents of babies switched at birth were physically documented in the U.S. between 1995 and 2008, although the center says that number is likely higher.

Washington — House Republicans are moving forward with their leadership elections Wednesday, though majority control still hangs in the balance as a number of key races have yet to be determined. 

Still, Republicans are operating as if they’ve secured control of the lower chamber for another two years. CBS News has characterized control of the House as lean Republican. 

The election for the No. 4 leadership spot, House Republican Conference chair, is the only competitive race, after Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York was offered a role to serve in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida. Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan and Rep. Erin Houchin of Indiana announced Monday they are running for conference chair. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both from Louisiana, said the day after the election that they would seek to return to their leadership roles in the next Congress, which begins in January. 

In a pair of letters to their Republican colleagues, both laid out similar priorities including border security, extending Trump-era tax cuts, reining in government spending and cutting regulations. 

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota also said in a letter to colleagues last week that he would seek another term in the role and acknowledged the infighting that has been a staple of the GOP majority in the current Congress. 

“We will always have disagreements over policy and strategy. That’s a good thing,” he said in his pitch. “Governing is messy and imperfect. But I have always believed that there is more that unites us than divides us. I’ve witnessed this as your whip, bringing together members from across our conference to hash out these disagreements and find a path to 218 votes.” 

Republicans regained control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections after four years of Democratic rule. But infighting has made it difficult for them to govern with a razor-thin majority amid early retirements and the expulsion of GOP Rep. George Santos, whose New York seat was later picked up by a Democrat. 

If they do hold onto control, House Republicans could again be governing with a slim majority, which would again put Johnson in a difficult position, even with Republicans in power in the Senate and White House. Johnson has had to rely on Democratic votes to pass legislation and was even rescued by Democrats from an ouster attempt.

Trump’s personnel selections for his second term could also have an effect on the potential Republican majority. As of Monday evening, the former president had tapped two House Republicans to serve in his administration, which would squeeze the potential GOP majority even further until those seats are filled in a special election.