(LifeSiteNews) — One of Canada’s leading provincial pro-life groups is calling on Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to take the next “step” to protect the unborn by mandating parental consent for “every major medical decision involving minors,” including abortion.
“Danielle Smith has already taken a significant step forward by acknowledging the importance of parental consent. Now, we need to encourage her to finish the job and ensure that all children are protected by the same standard. It’s also official UCP policy, after all,” Prolife Alberta noted in a recent message to members shared with LifeSiteNews.
Prolife Alberta said now is a “critical moment” for Smith to demonstrate that she “values the voices of Alberta’s families and is willing to listen to the concerns of everyday people.”
“Let’s make sure that parental consent is required for every major medical decision involving minors, including abortion,” the group said.
Prolife Alberta in its message said that now is the time to “seize this opportunity to call for comprehensive parental consent laws that leave no child behind,” and support a call to Smith to “make sure that parental consent is required for every major medical decision involving minors, including abortion.”
As it stands, a teenage girl can walk into “a clinic, get an abortion, and her parents won’t know a thing about it. No consent, no notification – just a sterile procedure funded by the very people who are being kept in the dark,” Profile Alberta said.
“The parents, blind to it all, are footing the bill through their hard-earned tax dollars, paying for something they might not even be aware of,” the group noted.
The reality is that in Alberta almost all legitimate medical procedures performed on minors, “whether it’s surgery, medication, or even dental work – require the consent of a parent or guardian,” Prolife Alberta mentioned.
“So why should it be any different when it comes to abortion?” the group observed.
“This double standard raises an important question: If parental consent is vital for decisions far less consequential, how can it be dismissed when the stakes are as high as ending a life?”
Over the weekend, thousands of United Conservative Party (UCP) members gathered for party’s annual general meeting, where Smith won a 91.5 percent approval rating from party members.
Prolife Alberta said its hard-line approach against Smith can sometimes rub party members the wrong way, but it needs to do this to keep the “determined opposition advocating for expanded abortion access, led by groups like the NDP and its leader Naheed Nenshi.”
“These voices, along with most of the media, are constantly pushing for more ‘reproductive rights’ — which, as we all know, translates directly to more opportunities to end preborn lives,” Prolife Alberta president Murray Ruhl said in a recent email to its supporters.
Ruhl said that as Smith has stated she is pro-abortion, with no firm pro-life counterbalance, she could relent to pressure from pro-abortion activists.
“Together, we can ensure that life has a voice in Alberta politics and that our leaders are reminded daily that we are here to stand for the vulnerable, no matter the opposition,” he noted.
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, many of Smith’s views, including those surrounding gay “marriage” and public funding for abortion, remain at odds with traditional conservative values, a fact that has made her a target of the province’s largest pro-life organization. However, she did say last year that she is in favor of adoption over abortion.
While Smith’s views on abortion are muddled, she has taken a pro-freedom approach to COVID, even once saying that the “unvaccinated” were the “most discriminated against” group she has seen in her lifetime. Also, it appears for now at least she has allowed her MLAs with pro-life views to speak out.
Canada’s top pro-life group also calls on Smith to act for the unborn
Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), Canada’s leading pro-life group (no affiliation with Prolife Alberta), also called on Smith to act for the unborn given her apparent advocation for “free speech.”
“Alberta Premier Danielle Smith @ABDanielleSmith is all in favour of speech rights, that is until it comes to pro-life advocates,” CLC posted October 25 on X.
“She won’t consider overturning bubble zone legislation outside of abortion centres put in place by the NDP,” CLC continued. “Speech rights are for everyone. If they are denied to some, in reality, nobody is protected.”
LifeSiteNews reported recently how despite internal calls from some UCP party members as well as some of their elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), Alberta’s government said it will not consider repealing a province-wide “bubble zone” law limiting pro-life activism outside abortion centers.
Prolife Alberta’s call to action comes on the heels of Smith’s recent introduction of a bill banning biological men from competing in women’s sports and a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.
In August, LifeSiteNews reported on how Prolife Alberta took aim at Smith for what it said was her silence on abortion, which takes the lives of 12,000 babies in the province each year.
Prolife Alberta had earlier, as reported by LifeSiteNews, sounded the alarm over what it says is a “sinister trend” developing in the province, noting how late-term abortions are on the “rise” with full-term babies being left “to die” due to inaction from the Conservative provincial government.
Prolife Alberta shared an email asking every Albertan to contact Smith at [email protected] with the text below:
Dear Premier Smith,
Thank you for recognizing the importance of parental notification for gender-related decisions for minors—a crucial safeguard for families. However, we need to ensure that all minors, including those seeking an abortion, are protected by the same standard. As you know, this is already official UCP policy (206.5b).
I urge you to finish the job and ensure parents are involved in every life-altering medical decision their children face.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]