OP-ED: Danielle Smith once called this a “horrific Practice” and she was right

Richard Durr writes, "If we do not protect a child who is born alive, what does that say about us? About you, about me, about Danielle Smith - about us who call ourselves alive?"

Source: Facebook, Danielle Smith

By Richard Dur

Prolife Alberta recently launched LeftToDie.ca, a campaign built on what government data has consistently revealed: babies are being born alive after failed late-term abortions in Alberta hospitals - only to be left to die.

Government data shows at least 28 such cases in the past year (20 the year before, and 26 the year before that). The babies born alive after failed abortions are the survivors of a targeted, intentional procedure meant to end their lives in utero. They are delivered after 20 weeks or more - but against all odds, they emerge alive. They breathe. They move. They whimper. And yet they are abandoned without care.

No doctors rush to help. No nurses reach out. Only the quiet hum of the machine – not the steel of an incubator, but the machinery of protocol, paperwork, and moral failure. And the silence of those who turn away.

Children, swallowed by indifference. Not in darkness, but under the bright fluorescent lights of a hospital room. And the imprimatur of Alberta’s Health Services. With them, dies humanity.

It is no secret that Prolife Alberta is strongly opposed to abortion - the practice of killing babies in the womb. But LeftToDie.ca is not about abortion. These human beings have already survived the attempt on their lives in the womb, only to be abandoned to death - after birth, outside the womb.

What is at stake here is simple – and yet it is everything: ensuring that when a child is born alive - breathing, moving, whimpering after birth - she receives the same care as any other newborn. Revising AHS health policies that permit otherwise would not regulate or restrict abortion in any way. But it could save a newborn child’s life.

The plea here is simple: revise provincial health protocols so that every newborn is treated as a patient, not a problem. Whether a child lives minutes, hours, or years, she deserves care and a chance at life - not abandonment.

It is also no secret that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith identifies as “pro-choice” on abortion. But this is not about abortion. It is about children who have already been born and then left to die - a disturbing reality Alberta’s Premier once recognized, and said so herself.

Twenty-five years ago, as a columnist for the Calgary Herald, Danielle Smith called the abandonment of babies born alive after failed abortions a “horrific practice.” She was right.

But words are no longer enough. A commentator may speak. A leader must act. And Danielle Smith is no longer a commentator. She is Premier of Alberta. And every day her government does nothing, the silence grows louder and the death toll of Alberta’s littlest citizens mounts.

If the breath of a child is not enough to stir us - what will be? Rarity is no excuse for injustice. Even one child left to die unnecessarily is one too many. And if we do not protect a child who is born alive, what does that say about us? About you, about me, about Danielle Smith - about us who call ourselves alive?

The silence has lasted long enough. It is time to end it - and to let the cries of children once left to die be heard.

Visit LeftToDie.ca to break the silence, and protect children born alive.

Richard Dur is the volunteer Executive Director of Prolife Alberta and an award-winning political consultant with experience on campaigns across Canada.