RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has been under attack for months by his Democratic rival and other opponents for calling for more restrictions on abortion beyond the state’s current laws and for making past comments criticizing women on the issue.
“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers. It’s about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down,” Robinson said in a Facebook video in 2019, a year before he was elected lieutenant governor in his first run for public office. Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the current state attorney general and an abortion rights supporter, has been showing the footage in commercials since June.
Now Robinson is trying to operate empathy to change the broader electorate’s mind on the issue with a up-to-date ad that debuts Friday. In it, he describes the abortion his wife had herself decades ago and creates the impression that he has no problem with his state’s current 12-week ban on most abortions.
The policy shift would be significant for Robinson, whose campaign said earlier this year that he supported a ban on abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Many women do not even know they are pregnant in the sixth week. Robinson had previously given the impression that he would support even stricter measures, for example when he said in 2020: “For me, there is no compromise on abortion.”
For decades, the Republican Party has campaigned on nationwide abortion restrictions. But while abortion rights boosted Democratic turnout and Republicans viewed them as a frail spot, Robinson’s approach reflects a continuing effort by conservative politicians to appear moderate on the issue of abortion rights or to avoid the issue altogether on the campaign trail — or otherwise risk defeat at the ballot box in a post-Roe v. Wade world.
The stakes are high in North Carolina. Races for state offices are typically neck-and-neck, and the winner of this closely watched gubernatorial contest in November could have a huge impact on whether the Republican-dominated General Assembly can advance its conservative agenda without opposition.
The campaign ad on television and digital platforms shows Robinson and his wife, Yolanda Hill, holding hands. They spoke publicly about their abortion in a video in 2022, but the potential audience is now much larger.
“Thirty years ago, my wife and I made a very difficult decision. We had an abortion,” Robinson says in the ad, adding that it was like a “silent pain between us that we never talked about.”
Hill added: “This is something that will stay with me forever.”
“For this reason, I stand by our current law,” Robinson continues, pointing to the “obvious exceptions” for pregnancies caused by incest and rape, as well as when the mother’s life is in danger.
Asked whether Robinson would change his views on abortion, campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan said Friday: “The legislature has already spoken out on this issue.”
In May 2023, the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a bill shortening the state’s ban on most abortions from 20 to 12 weeks of pregnancy, despite a veto by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.
If elected governor, Robinson “will work to make North Carolina a place to live by building a culture that is more supportive of women and families, including by promoting adoption, foster care and child care,” Lonergan added.
Stein’s campaign said later Friday that the Robinson ad was the “latest example of him deviating from his extreme and toxic stance on abortion.” Stein’s team claims that Robinson would seek a ban on abortion with no exceptions if elected.
“If the people of North Carolina want to know where Mark Robinson really stands on the issue of abortion, they should listen to every other comment he has made on the issue before today,” said Morgan Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the Stein campaign.
Former President Donald Trump has taken a more cautious stance on abortion rights this campaign, dodging questions and relying on his standard answer that he brought abortion back to the states when he helped form the majority that repealed the constitutional right to abortion.
The abortion policy is credited with pushing back an expected red wave last year and handing Democrats victories in Kentucky’s gubernatorial elections and the Virginia state legislature after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin failed to unite voters behind a proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions.
Term limits prevented Cooper from seeking a third consecutive term, but he essentially passed the Democratic baton to Stein, a former state senator who once worked under Cooper when he was the state’s attorney general.
Hopkins said in June that Stein “supports the Roe v. Wade framework of the last 50 years, which protects women’s reproductive freedoms and restricts abortions later in pregnancy unless the woman’s life or health is in danger.”
Such a framework typically allows abortions up to the point of viability, which is usually between 24 and 26 weeks of pregnancy. Robinson’s campaign has accused Stein of extreme views and said he supports abortions later in pregnancy, in the third trimester.
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Associated Press writer Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.
