Mark Robinson, the Republican Lt. Governor of North Carolina, is all but certain to run for governor in 2024, which is why he’s been spending the past several months going all in on Christian nationalism.
This is a guy who, in the past year alone, has said that forced religion in public schools could prevent mass shootings, that “transgenderism” and “homosexuality” amount to “filth,” that the trans movement is “demonic” and full of “Antichrist spirit,” and that straight couples are “superior” to gay ones.
When it comes to abortion, he’s been equally extreme, saying in a speech last summer that once a woman is pregnant, “it’s not [her] body anymore.” His campaign website made clear that, “As a Christian, Mark will honor the sanctity of life.”
That “sanctity” didn’t seem to matter in 1989, however, when Robinson paid for an abortion. It’s a story that he doesn’t talk about at churches and which doesn’t appear on his website, but one he openly shared publicly on Facebook in 2012, when virtually no one was paying him much attention.
According to that thread, which was unearthed on Twitter on Tuesday, Robinson was complaining about Christians who were supporting President Barack Obama as he ran for a second term. He asked (rhetorically) how those Christians could “Praise God” while voting for someone who supported marriage equality and abortion. As if progressive Christians weren’t True Christians™.
After one commenter pointed out that abortion wasn’t a black and white issue, because women may be victims of rape or their health may be in jeopardy, Robinson chimed in with made-up statistics, an acknowledgment that rape and health were legitimate reasons to have an abortion, and the revelation that could come back to haunt him:
… Everybody knows theres exceptions to rules and in the case that you mentioned that should be up to the woman… I’m not saying abortion is wrong cause I said so it’s wrong cause God says so. It’s wrong when others do it and it was wrong when I paid for it to be done to my unborn child in 1989.
If he has regrets, that’s on him. But at least he had the choice. It’s irrelevant what he thinks about that decision now. But it’s also wildly hypocritical coming from someone who wants to prevent anyone else from ever having that choice at all.
No wonder Republicans are trying to avoid commenting on this obvious hypocrisy.
NC GOP spokesman Jeff Moore said the party wouldn’t comment because it was “a personal matter.”
A spokesperson for the conservative NC Values Coalition weighed in Wednesday, telling Axios in an email: “People who have walked through the pain of abortion in some way can be the strongest advocates for the unborn after that experience. We haven’t heard his story yet, but what we do know is today Lt. Governor Robinson is genuine in his commitment to protect life.”
In other words, Republicans want to respect Robinson’s privacy, while making medical decisions for women who wouldn’t get the same privacy. And the people who consider every abortion akin to murder are extremely sympathetic to a guy who, in their minds, committed murder all because he’s on their side now. Abortion is always forgivable to conservatives as long as that someone promises to stop everyone else from having them; it’s the reason they never cared about Donald Trump’s personal history.
They’re showing plenty of sympathy for Robinson while showing none of it for the people who’d be forced to give birth against their will as a result of Robinson’s potential anti-abortion agenda.
Meanwhile, Democrats are rightly highlighting the hypocrisy:
Democrats used the news to push their position. “Everyone needs access to abortion, even Mark Robinson,” said Rachel Stein, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Democratic Party. “People from all walks of life—and political parties—have experiences with abortion.”
It’s been said many times before, but if abortion is banned, preachers’ daughters and Republicans with money will have no problem procuring them privately. They also won’t have any problem paying for them, if they want to take the Mark Robinson Approach to Pregnancy. They want to eliminate safe, legal options for the people who have few options to begin with.
Mark Robinson was able to pursue the life he wanted because he paid for an abortion more than three decades ago. He just doesn’t want you to be able to make the same choice. The question people need to be asking him is what he would’ve done in 1989 if women were forced to give birth because of politicians like him.