CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Democratic group has released new audio of North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for governor, saying he wants to restrict abortions even further, according to a NBC News report.
The audio, which was reportedly recorded on Sept. 3 at a Robinson campaign event in Troy, North Carolina.
When a woman asked Robinson about his stance on abortion and why he was supporting North Carolina’s current ban on the procedure after 12 weeks, Robinson can be heard saying “That 12 weeks, exceptions for rape and incest … I’m not going to say it’s reasonable. But my faith allows me to live with that, because that’s where the consensus is. Do I want to continue to lower it? You better know it. I would love 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 we could and eliminate as many abortions as we can.
“We can’t do it all at once,” he added. “The Democrats started off with Roe v. Wade, then moved to ‘safe, legal and rare.’ Then they got to where? Nine months in the womb. They did that over 50 years. … And we can do it.”
The Mark Robinson War Room, a project of the North Carolina Democratic Leadership Committee, , which is backed by the Democratic Governors Association, shared the recording with NBC News.
The group said it was established for the “sole purpose of holding Lt. Governor Mark Robinson accountable for his toxic record and dangerous agenda for North Carolina.”
Robinson has publicly stood behind allowing current abortion restrictions in North Carolina, which limit the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape or incest or to protect the life of the woman, to stand. He acknowledged in a TV ad this year his wife had an abortion 30 years ago and offered support for the current restrictions in North Carolina.
But Robinson made similar comments at a campaign event in February, saying, “We’ve got it down to 12 weeks, the next goal is to get it down to six, and then just keep moving from there,” WGHP-TV of Greensboro reported.
Robinson also told the woman he has not changed his stance on abortion “at all” and that “there’s no reason why an abortion should happen ever," in the audio shared with NBC News.
Robinson is running against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.