Alberta’s health minister says babies born alive after failed abortions ‘deserve respect’

RED DEER, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta’s health minister has promised she will look into making sure that the law is obeyed regarding babies born alive after failed late-term abortions, saying that the law is clear that a child who survives birth “is a human being and deserves respect.”

Minister of Health for Alberta Adriana LaGrange, who has a solid pro-life record and is a practicing Catholic mother of seven now-grown children and grandmother of seven, was asked if a baby born alive after a botched abortion or otherwise is treated as a “patient” after being born.

“As our laws stand, any child who survives birth is a human being and deserves respect. We are having the Alberta Health Services review their policies and procedures,” she said.

LaGrange made the comments at the Alberta Christian Leadership Summit in Red Deer, Alberta, over the weekend. The summit brought together a host of Alberta and Canadian Christian politicians and church pastors to discuss faith and its importance in society. Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) was there with a booth. The keynote speaker was Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

The issue of botched abortions in Alberta and Canada has been brought to light lately. This is because the group Prolife Alberta recently brought to attention the fact that data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) indeed “confirms that in Alberta, infants are still being born alive following labour-induced late-term abortions and left to die.”

“Last year it was 17, Seventeen babies. Seventeen times. Seventeen moments where the line between born and unborn was crossed, but care did not follow,” said Prolife Alberta.

Prolife Alberta has urged people to demand that politicians and health officials end the practice.

The group said in a recent email said that LaGrange’s answer is “no small statement” but not a guarantee that anything will be done.

Prolife Alberta said her words should not be controversial as they are “not a policy change” and that “a review announced is not a result delivered.”

Current AHS policies PS-92 and HCS-183-01, says Prolife Alberta, allow babies who are born premature or after a late-term abortion to be left to die without life-sustaining care. This is despite the law being clear that a child born has the right to life, which is obviously not followed in Canada.

Prolife Alberta has in the past called to attention the fact that babies are being left to die in Alberta.

The governing United Conservative Party (UCP) under Smith, while far from being pro-abortion, has still not actively made good on a promise to rally to bring forth a referendum to ban late-term abortions.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, last year, 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.

Similarly, reports from 2018 indicated that 766 babies were born alive after late-term abortions in Canada between 2013 and 2018 and presumably left to die.

There were 368,928 babies born in Canada from 2024 to 2025, a number that would be much greater if not for abortion. For context, in 2022, 97,211 Canadian babies were killed by abortion.