From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Tuesday, MLAs in the Alberta legislature voted 47 to 33 to pass the Health Statutes Amendment Act (HSAA), with all New Democratic Party MLAs voting against the measure.

The United Conservative Party (UCP) government of Alberta under its Premier Danielle Smith has officially passed a law banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors. 

On Tuesday, MLAs in the Alberta legislature voted 47 to 33 to pass the Health Statutes Amendment Act (HSAA) into law. All far-left New Democratic Party MLAs voted against the bill, which now awaits Royal Assent which is expected in the next few days.

The new law, called Bill 26, reflects “the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” it said.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.” 

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.” 

Speaking of the passage of the new law, Smith said she is not concerned she may have to use additional powers, such as the province’s notwithstanding clause, to make sure the bill stays in place, given the fact that left-wing LGBT activists have promised to challenge the bill in court. 

“I think that both the Charter as well as our Bill of Rights has the ability to make decisions and make policy that is convenient, that is reasonable, that is evidence-based,” said Smith in speaking to the passage of the bill.  

“And I think the decisions we made are all of those things.”  

Smith had earlier said about the bill that it is “important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing.”  

She also, as reported by LifeSiteNews, said she would not be “bullied out of preserving our children’s choices before they make life-altering — and often irreversible — adult decisions. Nor will I allow Justin Trudeau to limit parental involvement in their child’s education.” 

The passage of Bill 26 came after Alberta’s pro-life Health Minister Adriana LaGrange moved the third reading of it. She praised its passage, saying further details about how it will be enforced will be coming soon.  

“Finally, amendments to the Health Professions Act would prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors and would also prohibit regulated health professionals from prescribing hormone replacement therapies, including puberty blockers, to minors for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence,” said LaGrange.  

“Through a ministerial order, we will outline exceptions for when a minor can be prescribed these medications for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence.”  

Earlier this year, the UCP government under Smith announced she would introduce strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protects kids from life-altering surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology. 

While Smith has done well on some points, she has still 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.” 

Alberta law banning sex reassignment surgeries has support of ‘detransitioners’ 

Smith’s bill banning the sexual mutilation of minors, as reported by LifeSiteNews, has found the  support of an alliance for detransitioners. 

There has been overwhelming evidence showing that people who undergo so-called “gender transitioning” are more likely to commit suicide than those who are not given irreversible surgery. 

In addition to catering to a false reality that one’s sex can be changed, transgender surgeries and drugs have been linked to permanent physical and psychological damage, including cardiovascular diseases, loss of bone density, cancer, strokes and blood clots, and infertility. 

Meanwhile, a recent study on the side effects of transgender “sex change” surgeries discovered that 81 percent of those who had undergone “sex change” surgeries in the past five years reported experiencing pain simply from normal movement in the weeks and months that followed — and that many other side effects manifest as well. 

Smith’s government also passed 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.

While social conservatives have cause to celebrate in Alberta, other provinces, such as New Brunswick, are heading in the opposite direction when it comes to parental rights and gender ideology more broadly.