Virulently Anti-Abortion Lawmaker Scared to Say ‘the A-Word’
North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, does not want to talk about abortion — in fact, the leading Republican candidate for governor cannot even bring himself to say the word.
Speaking at an ice cream social in Concord, North Carolina on July 6 — five days after the state’s new abortion ban went into effect — he told the crowd, “North Carolina needs to become a destination state for life. Now notice what I said: I said ‘life.’ I did not say the A-word. The A-word. Everybody wants us to say the A-word… No sir.”
Before North Carolina’s deeply unpopular 12-week abortion ban became a reality — before a single state house representative switched parties and gifted the GOP a veto-proof majority to pass it — Robinson had no problem talking about his frothing opposition to abortion.
In February, he told a conservative talk show host that if he were elected governor, he would favor banning all abortions in the state — no exceptions for rape, incest, the health or life of the pregnant person. “If I had all the power right now — let’s say I was the governor and had a willing legislature — we could pass a bill saying you can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason,” Robinson said. Before that, he called abortion “murder,” a “moral evil, like slavery,” and asserted that once a woman is pregnant “it’s not [her] body anymore.”
But that seems to have changed in May, when the General Assembly muscled through a bill that bans medication abortions at 10 weeks gestation, and surgical abortions at 12. The bill requires patients to attend three in-person doctors appointments, and offers only limited exceptions past 12 weeks. The legislation, details of which were hashed out behind closed doors and only made public 24 hours before it was first put to a vote, went into effect July 1.
Voters aren’t happy about it. According to a poll from Elon University, 45 percent of North Carolina voters either oppose or strongly oppose the new ban; only a scant 23 percent of voters support or strongly support it.
It was around the time of that bill’s passage that Robinson first developed an aversion to talking about abortion. Asked by a reporter about the legislation, which practically cut in half the amount of time women in the state have to seek abortion care, Robinson replied, “I’m tired of talking about abortion. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
And as a candidate for statewide office in deep purple North Carolina, it’s easy to see why he feels that way. A separate poll from February showed 60 percent of the state’s Republican voters support further restricting abortion — but Republicans are not the largest voting bloc in the state. Unaffiliated voters are, and an overwhelming majority of those voters support abortion access. According to Meredith University’s survey, 59.3 percent of unaffiliated voters wanted to keep North Carolina’s previous law, which banned abortion at 20 weeks, or expand access. A full 75 percent of Democrats — North Carolina’s second-largest voting bloc — also supported keeping the law the way it was or expanding access.
Instead of talking about abortion, Robinson stuck to the classics on the campaign trail last week: denying climate change (“There are four seasons, four times a year the climate changes — get used to it!”), railing against drag shows at public libraries, and defending Donald Trump against the charges he hung on to “so-called classified documents” after leaving office. (Robinson’s office did not respond to press inquiries from Rolling Stone.)
Robinson, of course, is not alone in his newfound reluctance to use the “A-word.” At least a half dozen Republican strategists working on 2024 races told Rolling Stone in April they are advising their candidates to talk as little about abortion as possible. Donald Trump, de facto leader of the party, has told confidants the GOP is “getting killed on abortion,” and warned his fellow Republicans that they risk “losing big” if they push too aggressively for further restrictions.