The Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina walked away with a new TV advert where he and his wife reveal that she had an abortion 30 years ago.
In the announcement, Lt.-Gov. Mark Robinson and his wife speak directly to the camera, revealing few details about the procedure other than 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 North Carolina’s current abortion restrictions, which limit the procedure to 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother, and says “that’s why I maintain our current law.”
But the announcement comes as news organizations and Democratic groups in the state have for months unearthed controversial comments Robinson made about abortion, including in a 2019 Facebook Live broadcast where he said: “Abortion in this country has no to do with protecting the lives of mothers… It’s about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
The state’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, who is running against Robinson in the race to succeed Governor Roy Cooper, a term-limited Democrat, used FacebookLII have commentsn an attack ad against tHand 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 a law that would ban abortion “for any reason.”
In a statement released Friday, a spokesperson for Stein’s campaign referred to Robinson’s past remarks on abortion.
“If North Carolinians want to know where Mark Robinson really stands on abortion, they should listen to every other comment he has made on the issue to date,” said campaign spokesperson Morgan Hopkins.
“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,” Hopkins added.
During the Republican Party 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 go from there,” referring to abortion, a local Fox News affiliate reported.
Robinson also referred to abortion as “murder” and “genocide” on your personal Facebook page in 2018.
Robinson’s pledge in his television ad to maintain the state’s 12-week abortion ban appears to mark a shift from his previous remarks.
Asked how the lieutenant governor reconciles the ad’s revelation with his previous comments, his campaign spokesman Mark Lonergan did not respond to Robinson’s previous comments.
“The legislature has already ruled on this issue,” Lonergan responded. “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 strengthening foster care as well as foster care.”
Robinson is not the first Republican candidate this year to publicly say his wife had an abortion. In Nevada earlier this year, GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown and his wife, Amy, told NBC News 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 television ads promising not to change state abortion laws if elected. The ads come as Republicans face Democrats’ efforts to cast them as extremists on the issue.
In New Hampshire, former Senator Kelly Ayotte tells viewers in an ad currently airing: “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 congressman Dave Reichert addresses the issue in one of his television ads, saying, “As governor, I will not change Washington law on this issue.”
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
