Submissions on New Zealand Legislation and Parliamentary Bills | Right to Life
Submission on the Modern Slavery Bill (Bill No. 242-1) – May 2026
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Introduced to Parliament: 9 February 2026
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First Reading passed: 29 April 2026
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Referred to the Education and Workforce Select Committee: 28 April 2026 (effective following first reading process)
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Public submissions closed: 27 May 2026
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Committee report due: 30 August 2026
Submission to Modern Slavery Bill
Right to Life supports the Modern Slavery Bill. We are opposed to slavery and applaud the Bill’s objective to defend human rights. It is noted that The Bill only recognises the slavery of people overseas and fails to recognise that we have slavery in New Zealand that is permitted by legislation and funded by the State. Slavery was outlawed in New Zealand in 1840 when we adopted the common law of England. Slavery was introduced in New Zealand with the passing of the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 which denied the humanity of the unborn child and defined the unborn child as the property of the mother to be disposed of as she wished.
Slavery is defined by the denial of the human rights of the individual person who then has the status of property and may be used and disposed of according to the wishes of the property’s owner.
It is contended that unborn children are human beings and are endowed by their Creator with human rights, the foundation right being an inalienable right to Life.
It should be noted that the Royal Commission on Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion in its report to Parliament in 1977 stated that the unborn child was a human being from the moment of conception and that there was no point between conception and birth when the child was not a human being.
New Zealand legislation denies the status of unborn children as human beings endowed with an inalienable right to life. The law upholds the legal fiction that the child does not become a human being until it is born. The child before birth is the exclusive property of the mother. The Crimes Act allows her to have the child killed for any reason effectively up to birth. The child’s status as property is effectively one of servitude and slavery.
Right to Life believes that the child’s status as a non - human being and the property of the mother is a violation of human rights and a crime against humanity.
In 2024 17,785 unborn children were killed in their mother’s womb in conformity with the legal right of the mother to dispose of her property
If New Zealand is to play its part in ending modern slavery it will be necessary for Parliament to legislate to recognise the status of the unborn child as a human being endowed by its Creator with human rights at conception.
Defining the unborn child as the exclusive property of the mother also imposes a great injustice on the mother. It denies her dignity as a mother and a collaborator with the Creator in denying that her unborn child is a unique and unrepeatable miracle of His loving creation.
Right to Life requests that the select committee ensure that our submission made on behalf of our precious children in the womb is included in its report to Parliament on the Slavery Bill .
Ken Orr
Secretary Right to Life New Zealand Inc.