North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson appears to have changed his stance on abortion after releasing a new ad, which outlined the story of his own wife’s abortion.
“Thirty years ago, my wife and I made a very difficult decision. We had an abortion,” he said in the ad shared online.
Robinson, who currently serves as lieutenant governor of the Tar Heel State, became emotional as he said the medical procedure was a “solid hurt” between him and his wife that they “never talked about.”
“It’s something that stays with me forever,” said Yolanda Hill, his wife, as they held hands in the video.
Robinson added that he also supports the state’s 12-week abortion law because it “provides common-sense exceptions,” including protecting the life of the mother or in the case of rape or incest.
The state law, he said, “gives help to mothers and prevents cruel abortions later in life.”
“When I am governor, mothers in need will be supported,” added the Republican candidate.
The comments mark a new tone for the lieutenant governor, who in the past has openly spoken out against access to abortion.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat running against Robinson, previously advertisements released who attacked his opponent on the issue.
The ad included a clip of Robinson speaking on a 2019 Facebook Live broadcast where he said that abortion is not “to protect the lives of the mothers” but rather that the procedure is “to kill the child because you were not responsible for keeping the skirt down.”
In the past, the head of the Republican Party regularly said that abortion was “murder” and “genocide”, comparing the anti-abortion movement to efforts to end slavery, CNN reported.
In a speech at a church in July 2021, Robinson said that women who have abortions are murderers. He said he didn’t care if the person was 24 hours pregnant or 24 weeks pregnant, “if you kill that young man. It’s murder. You have blood on your hands.
As the swing state’s gubernatorial race heats up, Robinson appears to have changed his stance on abortion to appeal to voters in North Carolina, a state that has been locked in a back-and-forth fight over abortion rights since Roe v. .
According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Stein leads with 40.9% support, compared to Robinson’s 38.3%.
In a statement FridayStein’s campaign said Robinson was misleading voters about his true position on abortion.
“Mark Robinson knows that North Carolinians can’t stand 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 away from his history and misleading voters,” Morgan Hopkins, a spokeswoman for Stein’s campaign, said in a statement. “If North Carolinians want to know where Mark Robinson stands on abortion, they should listen to every other comment he has made on the issue to date.”
The Hill has reached out to Robinson’s campaign for comment.
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