OP-ED: Danielle Smith exposed this now she lets it continue

Richard Dur writes, "Premier Smith, you knew the truth in 2000. You know it now. You had the courage to expose this injustice then. Now you have the power to end it."

Source: Facebook

By Richard Dur

It wasn’t supposed to happen.

The nurse’s hands trembled, just a little, when the tiny shoulders slid free. Twenty-three weeks gestation, maybe twenty-four. Her skin was red, waxy. Eyes fused shut. But the chest was rising and falling. A flutter, then faster. Her lungs sucked in the hospital air, like a whispered prayer for life no one intended to answer.

A weak cry came out — a sound halfway between a squeak and a whimper. Not loud. Fragile, but insistent. A child asserting her will to live in a place that had no plan for her survival.

There was no incubator waiting. No crash cart. No neonatal specialists. Just a stainless-steel basin, a warm towel, and a room too quiet for what had just happened.

She wasn’t supposed to be born alive.
Now she wasn’t supposed to live. Policy made sure of it.

The nurse wrapped her up and held her — not to help, not to heal, but just to keep her still. Someone mentioned the words “comfort care.” It sounded gentle. It sounded clean. But what it really meant was this: no oxygen. No incubator. No intervention. Just wait — and let her die.

Die quietly. That was the plan.

The only problem? She didn’t follow it.

Then and now — Alberta hasn’t changed.

Danielle Smith knew this was happening twenty-five years ago, when she was a columnist for The Calgary Herald. In words that still sting with moral clarity, she wrote:

“…Second- and third-trimester abortions are a horrific practice. Recently, Calgary’s Foothills Hospital changed its policy for how it deals with late terminations. Nurses used to induce labour then withhold fluids from the baby until it died. Now they inject sodium chloride into the fetus’s heart, killing it before inducing labour.”

She didn’t look away. She didn’t stay silent. She put it in print for all to see.

But today — the horror continues. The methods may have changed. The outcome has not: babies are still being born alive after failed abortions — and still being left to die. Quietly. By design. Under Alberta Health Services policy.

Alberta Health Services’ Policy PS-92 officially permits: Abortions after 21 weeks — the age when a baby may survive outside the womb; Induced cardiac arrest before delivery, to ensure the baby is not born alive; “Comfort care” if the child does survive — not life-saving treatment; Advance consideration of a “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) order in anticipation of a possible live birth.

This is not health care. It is the quiet death sentence for babies labeled “unwanted” — even after they’re born. Even while hundreds of hopeful couples wait for a child to adopt.

Premier Smith recognized this evil then. She described it in detail. She didn’t just name the methods — she named the place: Calgary’s Foothills Hospital. She called second- and third-trimester abortion a “horrific practice.”

She was right.
And now she is Premier.
She no longer needs to warn us. She can act.

So why, when the same horror plays out under her leadership, does she remain silent?
Does she really need a citizen initiative to tell her a baby born alive shouldn’t be left to die?

She once called for citizen initiatives because politicians wouldn’t confront hard truths.
But this isn’t a hard truth — it’s an obvious one.

A newborn crying on a table isn’t a policy debate. It’s a test of our humanity. And no civilized society needs democratic consensus to know that a baby born alive must be helped, not left to die.

Premier Smith was a visionary in bringing forward citizen-initiated legislation.
But this — this — is not a matter for public consultation. It is a matter of moral urgency.
A government that can’t protect a child gasping for air on a metal table isn’t neutral. It’s complicit.

Premier Smith, you knew the truth in 2000. You know it now. You had the courage to expose this injustice then. Now you have the power to end it. That begins by suspending all late-term abortion procedures in Alberta hospitals and clinics, pending a full review of AHS Policy PS-92. It requires launching a transparent public investigation into cases where babies are born alive after failed abortions. And it demands implementing clear, binding protocols to ensure that every child born alive—regardless of the circumstances of birth—receives emergency medical care.

This wouldn’t regulate or restrict abortion. It would simply ensure that a newborn child is treated as a patient, not a problem.

The child in that room had a heartbeat — and for anyone with a heart, that should be enough. So, Premier Smith, now that you have the power, the only question is whether you will finally end the horrific practice you once exposed twenty-five years ago. Will you?

Richard Dur is an award-winning political consultant with extensive experience working on campaigns across Canada. In addition to his professional work, he serves as the volunteer Executive Director of Prolife Alberta, an organization dedicated to advancing pro-life public policy in Alberta

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