A Democratic group has released a new North Carolina voice Republican Lt. Gov. Mark RobinsonThe gubernatorial candidate said he wants to reduce abortion restrictions to “zero” weeks.
In audioAccording to the group, during a Robinson campaign event in Troy, N.C. on Sept. 3, a woman asked Robinson about his position on abortion and why he supported North Carolina. current 12 week ban about the procedure.
Robinson responded: “Those 12 weeks, the exceptions for rape and incest… I’m not going to say that’s reasonable. But my faith allows me to live with it, because the consensus is here. Do I want to keep taking it down? If you know it better. I would like to get down to six weeks. And I’d like to get down to zero. I would like to push it back as far as I can and eliminate as many abortions as possible.”
“We can’t do it all at once,” he said. “Democrats in Roe v. It started with Wade, then they moved on to “safe, legal and rare”. Then where did they come? Nine months in the womb. They did it for 50 years. … And we can do it.”
The recording, shared with NBC News, was released by the Mark Robinson War Room, a project of the North Carolina Democratic Leadership Committee supported by the Democratic Governors Association. The group said it has the “sole purpose of holding Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson accountable for his toxic record and dangerous agenda for North Carolina.” Robinson is running against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.
Robinson publicly stood behind allowing the existing restrictions to stand in North Carolina. The lieutenant governor admitted television commercial earlier this year said his wife had an abortion 30 years ago and offered support for current abortion restrictions in North Carolina that limit the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy, except for rape, incest or the life of the mother.
But Robinson advocates further measures. He did similar comments At a campaign event in February, the local Fox News affiliate said, referring to abortion, “We got it down to 12 weeks, the next goal is to get it down to six and then move on from there.” .
In the audio shared with NBC News, Robinson also told the woman that his position on abortion has not changed “at all” and that there is “no reason abortion should ever happen.”
“I’m 100% alive and I think it should be. If I am a pastor in the pulpit, this is what I preach. If I give advice to someone, a young lady, a couple, I tell them this. I tell them to choose life for their child.”
Robinson then explained that he was not a pastor and that as an elected official he needed to work by consensus.
“Now a lot of people say, ‘This changes your position.’ It means losing your confidence.” No, it’s not,” Robinson said. “You should be an elected official. You have to be mature enough in your faith to watch people do things you don’t agree with and let them do it since we don’t live in a theocracy. If we have politicians who start ruling the country as soon as they rule their church, we end up like Iran. This country was not formed like that.”
Stein has been an outspoken supporter of abortion rights and has vowed to defend access to the procedure.
Asked about Robinson’s comments about reducing abortions to “zero,” Robinson campaign communications director Mike Lonergan sent a written statement.
“Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is pro-life because of the painful and difficult experience he and his wife lived through and because of his beliefs,” Lonergan said in a statement. “By supporting taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions on demand, Kamala Harris and Josh Stein are extreme and out of step with North Carolina voters. They’re using the same playbook that failed in 2022 and will fail again in 2024.”
“The Legislature has already spoken on this issue,” Lonergan said. “As Governor, Mark Robinson will work to make North Carolina a place for life by building a more supportive culture that supports women and families, including through adoption, foster care and child care.”