The Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina is out with a new TV ad where he and his wife reveal that she had an abortion 30 years ago.
In the ad, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and his wife talk directly to the camera, revealing few details about the procedure beyond his telling viewers, “Thirty years ago, my wife and I made a very difficult decision. We had an abortion.”
Later in the ad, Robinson says he agrees with the current abortion restrictions in North Carolina, which limit the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother, and says “that’s why I stand by our current law.”
But the ad comes as news organizations and Democratic groups in the state have for months unearthed controversial comments Robinson has made about abortion, including in a Facebook Live stream in 2019, where he said, “Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers … It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein, who is running against Robinson in the race to succeed Gov. Roy Cooper, a term-limited Democrat, used the Facebook Live comments in an attack ad against the lieutenant governor in recent weeks. The ad shows Robinson appearing to say that if he were governor and had a “willing” state Legislature, he would sign legislation into law banning abortion “for any reason.”
In a statement Friday, a spokesperson for Stein’s campaign pointed to Robinson’s previous remarks on abortion.
“If North Carolinians want to know where Mark Robinson really stands on abortion, they should listen to every other comment he’s made on the issue before today,” campaign spokesperson Morgan Hopkins said.
“Mark Robinson knows North Carolinians can’t stomach his beliefs that abortion should be banned ‘for any reason’ and that women have abortions because they ‘can’t keep their skirts down,’ so he has resorted to running from his record and misleading voters,” Hopkins added.
During the GOP gubernatorial primary earlier this year, Robinson told voters at a campaign event, “We’ve got it down to 12 weeks, the next goal is to get it down to six, and then just keep moving from there,” referring to abortion, a local Fox News affiliate reported.
Robinson also referred to abortion as “murder” and “genocide” on his personal Facebook page in 2018.
Robinson’s promise in his TV ad to keep the state’s abortion ban at 12 weeks appears to mark a shift from his previous remarks.
Asked how the lieutenant governor reconciles the revelation in the ad with his past comments, his campaign spokesperson, Mark Lonergan, did not address Robinson’s previous remarks.
“The legislature has already spoken on this issue,” Lonergan replied. “As governor, Mark Robinson will work to make North Carolina a destination for life by building a culture that does more to support women and families, including bolstering adoption, as well as foster and childcare.”
Robinson isn’t the first GOP candidate this year to publicly say his wife had an abortion. In Nevada earlier this year, GOP Senate nominee Sam Brown and his wife, Amy, told NBC News that she had an abortion in 2008.
And in addition to Robinson, GOP candidates for governor in Washington and New Hampshire, two other competitive gubernatorial races this year, are also currently running TV ads promising not to change state abortion laws if elected. The ads come as Republicans grapple with Democratic efforts to brand them as extreme on the issue.
In New Hampshire, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte tells viewers in an ad currently on the air, “No matter what they say or how many times they say it, as governor I fully support and will not change New Hampshire’s abortion law.”
And in Washington, former Rep. Dave Reichert addresses the issue in one of the ads he is running on TV, saying, “As governor, I will not change Washington law on this issue.”
