By Ahmed Jallow 

NC Newsline

Last week, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson released a campaign ad saying he supports North Carolina’s law banning abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and backs “common sense” exceptions for cases involving rape, incest and risk to the life of the mother, marking a shift from his previous, uncompromising views and statements on the issue.  

However, Democrats say they are not buying it, calling it a ploy by the GOP nominee to appear less extreme as the fall election approaches.  

“If this weren’t an election year, does anyone seriously believe that Mark Robinson wouldn’t still be pushing for a total abortion ban that he was just [pushing] under a year ago?” asked Anderson Clayton, the North Carolina Democratic Party chair, during a virtual press conference Wednesday morning. 

In a 2018 Facebook post, Robinson called abortion “genocide.” Robinson has also previously said “there is no compromise on abortion,” and that “it makes no difference to me why or how that child ended up in that womb.”  

And earlier this year, he told a gathering in Pitt County that he wanted to see abortion banned completely. “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 six, and then just keep moving from there.”  

“No desperate campaign ad changes the fact that our rights are on the line this year and on the ballot box in November,” Clayton said.  

Last week’s ad, titled “Unscripted,” begins with Robinson detailing he and his wife Yolanda’s joint decision for her to have an abortion 30 years ago prior to their marriage.

“It was like this solid pain between us that we never spoke of,” Robinson says in the ad, sitting beside his wife as they hold hands. 

“It’s something that stays with you forever,” she says. 

North Carolina’s law, Robinson says, “gives help to mothers and stops cruel late-term abortions.” 

“When I’m governor, mothers in need will be supported,” he says.

Ryan Stitzlein of Reproductive Freedom for All, an abortion rights group supporting Robinson’s Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, also questioned Robinson’s intentions.  

“No matter how Mark Robinson tries to spin it, the truth is, he would sign a total abortion ban into law here in North Carolina,” said Stitzlein, who is also vice president of political and government relations.  

“If he has the chance to do it. He knows exactly how unpopular that is, and that is the only reason why he’s trying to cover this up North Carolinians should not be fooled,” said Stitzlein.

Reporter Ahmed Jallow covers education as well as politics and elections