North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat running for governor against Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, plans to air his first two television ads on Tuesday that highlight his opponents’ views on abortion. a high-stakes battlefield raceaccording to a campaign official who shared the ads exclusively with NBC News.
one 30 second adRobinson, who has been an outspoken critic of abortion rights in a film titled “Listen,” spoke on Facebook Live in 2019 and spoke out against the procedure, a campaign official said.
In the clip used in the ad, Robinson says, “Abortion in this country is not about saving the lives of mothers.” “It’s about killing a kid because you weren’t responsible enough to lower your skirt.”
The ad, which is part of Stein’s campaign’s seven-figure buy, also features Robinson saying that if he were governor and had a “willing” state Legislature, he would sign a law banning abortion “for any reason.”
There is also what Robinson said in the same place: “For me, there is no compromise in abortion. It doesn’t matter to me why and how that child is in that mother’s womb.”
Stein, an outspoken supporter of abortion rights, has vowed to defend access to the procedure and women’s reproductive freedoms.
“This November, North Carolinians will have a stark choice between Josh Stein and a safer, stronger North Carolina or Mark Robinson’s focus on denying women’s reproductive freedoms and a divisive vision that will kill jobs,” Stein’s campaign manager, Jeff Allen, said in a statement. “Over the next five months, we’re committed to making sure every North Carolinian knows the stakes in this race — and we’re just getting started.”
Asked to comment on Stein’s attacks on Robinson’s position on abortion, Robinson’s campaign communications director Mike Lonergan said Robinson is “pro-life” because of the “painful and difficult” experience he and his wife had when they decided to get an abortion. Abortion in 1989. Robinson has since said the abortion decision was “wrong.”
“He said as governor he would sign the heartbeat bill, except when rape, consanguinity and the mother’s life are at risk,” Lonergan said in Robinson’s statement. “Lt. Governor Robinson also wants to make North Carolina a pro-life destination state by doing more to support women who choose life; such as improving our foster care and adoption systems; and protecting access to IVF.
Lonergan also attacked President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole for their positions on abortion.
“Biden, Stein and the Democrats are recycling the same old playbook they used in 2022,” Lonergan said. “It failed then, and it will fail now. North Carolina voters do not support the Biden-Stein agenda of taxpayer-funded, late-term abortion on demand. This is extreme and does not correspond to the values of our state.”
The second announcement On Tuesday, Stein’s campaign as North Carolina’s attorney general focused on the backlog of cases and the fentanyl crisis.