EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – Members of Alberta’s ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) passed a host of pro-life/family and anti-woke policy mandates, including a ban on public funding for late-term abortions.
Over the weekend, 25 of 26 policy changes were passed at the UCP’s AGM in Edmonton. Of note is that the passed resolutions do not constitute official government policy and are not binding; however, they can become law.
Important policy measures passed included restricting the use of LGBT flags on government buildings, pulling back COVID mandates, and cutting funding for abortions.
Resolution 29, which calls for a ban on late-term abortion funding, easily passed. This resolution calls to “Cease public funding for third-trimester abortions, except in cases where the physical health of the mother is at serious risk.”
“Alberta remains one of the only jurisdictions in the developed world without limitations on the public funding of late-term abortions, placing us alongside regimes like North Korea,” it reads.
“This resolution does not seek to restrict access to third-trimester abortions outright but rather to establish a responsible, values-based funding policy,” it continues.
Unfortunately, the policy is not really a true pro-life. This is because it suggests that by “limiting taxpayer funding to (so-called) medically necessary cases in the third trimester, this policy encourages earlier decision-making when abortion is safer for the mother and less ethically contentious.”
However, as proven by science, life begins at the moment of conception, and every unborn baby’s life is valuable, regardless of their age. Abortion is never medically necessary.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Alberta UCP MLA Jason Stephan spoke in the Alberta legislature on November 19 about late-term abortions, calling for a citizen-led referendum to ban the practice.
Late-term abortions often result in live births, as the baby is not completely killed during the abortion procedure. As reported by LifeSiteNews recently, 150 babies were born after botched abortions in 2023-2024 in Canada, but it’s not known how many survived.
Parental rights
Another important resolution passed in regard to parental rights that called on the government to make sure that third-party educational materials regarding anything LGBTQ related are available to parents when asked.
Last year, Smith’s government also passed Bill 27, a law banning schools from hiding a child’s pronoun changes at school that will help protect kids from the extreme aspects of the LGBT agenda.
Bill 27 will also empower the education minister to, in effect, stop the spread of extreme forms of pro-LGBT ideology or anything else to be allowed to be taught in schools via third parties.
LGBT flag ban and medical rights
Members also passed Resolution 3, which aims to fly LGBT flags that are routinely flown at government buildings and schools. The policy reads to only allow “official government flags, specifically Canada, Alberta, and/or official Municipality flags, to be flown on Provincial Government, Municipal Buildings or Alberta Government tax funded property.”
Another resolution that was passed looks to increase medical rights by calling on the government to implement the January 2025 Alberta Pandemic Data Review Task Force Report recommendations.
The report was commissioned by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith last year, giving the task force a sweeping mandate to investigate her predecessor’s COVID-era mandates and policies.
The task force’s final report recommended halting “the use of COVID-19 vaccines without full disclosure of their potential risks” as well as outright ending their use “for healthy children and teenagers as other jurisdictions have done,” mentioning Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the U.K.
The change in COVID jab policy is no surprise given Smith’s opposition to mandatory shots.
Smith has done well on some points but has been relatively soft on social issues of importance to conservatives such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson earlier this year that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
She also recently said her government will use a rare constitutional tool, the notwithstanding clause, to ensure three bills passed this year – a ban on transgender surgery for minors, stopping men from competing in women’s sports, and protecting kids from extreme aspects of the LGBT agenda – stand and remain law after legal attacks from extremist activists.
