Are we really serious about preventing child murder?

Media Release 12 February 2026

Right to Life is opposed to the murder of both born and unborn children.

Every child unborn and born is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God’s loving creation.

The torture and murder of Malachi Subecz was a deplorable crime.

God has commanded us in the sixth commandment, “thou shalt not kill.” This is a complete prohibition of the killing of both the born and the unborn. We challenge God’s wrath at our peril, when we defiantly kill His precious unborn infants.

Right to Life grieves with the family of five year old Malachi Subecz who was murdered by his caregiver, Michaela Barrball, on 12th November 2021. Barrball was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This poor defenceless child had been starved, beaten and burnt and finally murdered after serious head trauma, he died in Starship Hospital in Auckland.

Janet Anderson, the Coroner, in her judgment stated that the poor boy was “the victim of unspeakable cruelty and deliberate evil.”

Right to Life believes that we are inconsistent in being shocked and opposed to the torture and murder of born children, when we permit the torture and murder of innocent and defenceless children in their mother’s wombs. By permitting the murder of the unborn by poisoning, being scraped out of their mother’s womb or being dismembered, the State has changed our culture to a culture of death, which accepts the murder of unborn children.

In 2024 there were 17,785 children tortured, dismembered and murdered before birth.

Why does our government permit and fund the murder of healthy children in normal pregnancies under the guise that it is “healthcare”?

Our precious children are our nation’s treasure. A nation that kills its own children is a nation without a future.

Right to Life is dedicated to upholding a culture of life, and will continue advocating with government for legal recognition of the humanity of unborn children from conception, endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to life, which must be respected and fully protected.

The Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has said repeatably that the murder of Malachi Subecz was “a shameful chapter of New Zealand history.”

Right to Life asks the Prime Minister, who believes that abortion is murder: will he now seek legislation to increase protection for the right to life of both born and unborn children from being tortured and murdered?

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.