Mark Robinson, the Republican Party nominee for governor of North Carolina and staunch anti-abortion advocate revealed that his wife once had the procedure done.
“Thirty years ago, my wife and I made a very difficult decision. We had an abortion,” Robinson, the current lieutenant governor, said in an ad with his wife. “It was like solid pain between us that we never spoke of. It’s something that stays with you forever.”
Robinson later added that he supports the state’s 12-week abortion law because it “provides common sense exceptions,” including protecting the life of the mother or in case of rape or incest.
The ad comes at a time when Democratic groups in the state have uncovered controversial comments Robinson has made about abortion.
He has referred to abortion as “murder” and “genocide” in the past.
In a Facebook Live stream in 2019, 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,” NBC News reports.
Also, the 12-week abortion ban Robinson now endorsed, he suggested that it was not enough while speaking to voters on the campaign trail earlier this year.
“We’ve got to do it that same way they rolled it forward, we’ve got to do it the same way with rolling it back. We’ve got it down to 12 weeks. The next goal is to get it down to 6, and then just keep moving from there,” he said.
Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein, who is challenging Robinson for the governorship slammed him for trying to whitewash his record on the abortion issue.
“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,” Stein’s 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.
