Are Winston Peters & New Zealand First pro-life?

Media Release 13 April 2026

Right to Life questions whether Winston Peters and New Zealand First are pro-life.

Right to Life is disappointed that a perusal of the policies of NZ First for the 2026 general election reveal a complete absence of any policy to protect the lives of unborn children or of the vulnerable in our community threatened by euthanasia.

Right to life believes that the first duty of those we elect to sit in our parliament, is to protect the right to life of every member of the community, from conception to natural death. Right to Life has recently written to the Right Honourable Winston Peters, asking him if he and his party have a policy to recognise the unborn child from conception as a human being and endowed with an inalienable right to life, we received no reply. There was also no reply to our follow-up letter, why is he refusing to answer our questions?

Right to Life believes that those who are not prepared to protect the right to life of unborn children should not be trusted to govern the born.

In his speech at the Family First forum in 2014, Winston Peters stated that he believed that “abortion should be safe, legal and rare.” He believed that it was a crime to kill an unborn baby, who was a human being from conception and endowed by its Creator with an inalienable right to life.

Abortion is never safe for the unborn child who is murdered, nor is it safe for the mother, who is severely wounded with a potential lifetime of spiritual, psychological, physical and emotional damage.

Winston Peters claims that abortion should be rare. There were 17,785 abortions in New Zealand in 2024. One in five New Zealanders were killed in their mother’s womb, this means that abortion is not rare, but tragically prolific and effectively on demand up to birth. The most dangerous place for a New Zealander today is in its mother’s womb. Right to Life asks Winston Peters: why are you not protesting at the killing and what are you going to do to protect the lives of our unborn children?

We should not forget that New Zealand First were in coalition with Labour from 2017 to 2020, and with National from 2023 to 2026. During this period they shared responsibility for the violence perpetrated on women and their precious unborn children. Right to Life believes that the blood of more than 100,000 defenceless unborn New Zealanders is on their hands.

Why did they (and their coalition partners) ignore the silent scream of these children and remain silent as they were poisoned, scraped out of their mother’s wombs or violently dismembered. Why did you allow this horrendous violence funded by the State and promoted as a “health service?”

Right to Life believes that there is an overwhelming need to urgently repeal the anti-life and anti-feminist Abortion Legislation Act 2020. Right to Life encourages Winston Peters to exercise his political power as a statesman that we desperately need to protect women and our unborn children by advocating for the repeal of the extremist Abortion Legislation Act 2020.

Right to Life believes that the extreme Abortion Legislation Act has inflicted horrendous violence on our defenceless unborn, on their mothers, their fathers and on our whole community.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are intrinsically evil. The community should not forget that Winston Peters and New Zealand first parliamentarians voted unanimously in 2019 for the passing of the End of Choice Act 2019.

Right to Life believes that there is firm expectation with his supporters, that he and New Zealand First should be strongly pro-life. The latest Taxpayers’ Union–Curia poll has New Zealand First at 13.6%, up 3.9 points from last month. On those numbers, the electorate would return 17 MPs to Parliament which is more than double the number of seats that they have now. Winston Peters rating as preferred Prime Minister has also lifted again, and the current coalition now sits at 65 seats, enough to re-form a government.

Right to Life encourages Winston Peters and New Zealand First to adopt policies to protect the right to life of all New Zealanders, by protecting all human life from conception to natural death from the violence of abortion and euthanasia.

Ken Orr,

Spokesperson,

Right to Life New Zealand Inc.