A month after seeking a softer tone on abortion, Mark Robinson says ‘there’s no reason why an abortion should happen ever.’

At a campaign event, Robinson said that while he backs North Carolina’s current 12-week abortion ban, he would continue to push for a six-week ban and then a complete ban.

Mark Robinson, who said last year that women shouldn’t be able to have an abortion for any reason, and then last month softened his stance to say he supported the state’s 12-week abortion ban, now says that women shouldn’t be able to have an abortion for any reason. 

If it were up to him, Robinson said at a campaign stop in Troy, N.C., on Sept. 3, he would first pass a six-week abortion ban and then eventually implement a full ban.

“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,” Robinson told a young woman who seemed to share his viewpoint. 

“There’s no reason why an abortion should happen ever,” said Robinson, the Republican candidate to be North Carolina’s next governor.

This is a view Robinson has frequently cited to friendly audiences on the campaign trail and to far-right radio hosts, but it is not the view he articulated in a recent campaign ad, in which he said he “stands behind” the state’s 12-week ban and its “common sense” exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

In an interview with Political Beat last week, Robinson said more publicly what he has often said on the trail: If he is governor and the General Assembly passes a six-week abortion ban, he would sign it.

Robinson rose to prominence in his party over the last few years, in part because of his “no compromise” position on abortion. He has dismissed exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, called abortion providers “butchers,” and admonished women to “keep your skirt down.”

The ad, in which Robinson and his wife also acknowledge they had an abortion when they were younger, came as several polls showed him trailing his Democratic opponent, Josh Stein, who has vowed to “fight like hell” to defend abortion rights.

NBC News first reported the Troy audio clip, which was given to them by a Democratic group supporting Stein.

‘We don’t live in a theocracy’

Even as Robinson reverted to his previous stance in the Troy event, he still seemed to be seeking a more nuanced position than he has taken in the past, telling the woman that though these are the things he may preach from the pulpit, he has to find common ground in the public sector.

“I’m 100% for life, and that’s how I think it should be, [and] if I’m a pastor in the pulpit, that’s what I’m preaching.”

Robinson, who has often given sermon-like speeches at churches throughout his campaign, said, however, that he is not not a pastor.

“I serve as an elected official, so I have to go along with something called consensus,” he said.

He continued: “We don’t live in a theocracy. If you have politicians who start running the country like they run their church, you end up like Iran.”

He added, “You have to be mature enough to let people choose their own course.”

That too, is a new line.

Robinson has frequently called abortion “murder” and framed the issue as a battle between Biblical good and evil.

“You are killing a human being,” Robinson said in a 2021 speech. “In a nation where you’ll go to jail for killing a manatee or a bald eagle, you can go down to the corner clinic and kill a human being and discard it like trash,” he said.

“What does that say about this nation? Abortion is murder, and it has got to be purged from our shores. Same way we purge slavery. And I’m not ashamed to say it.” 

A shifting view of ‘common sense’

In the ad, Robinson seemed to back away from some of those views, saying that the exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother are “common sense.”

That is not what he has said before.

“When you talk to me about abortion, you’d best not bring up rape and incest,” he wrote in his 2021 memoir. “Those are side issues.”

In a Facebook Live video in 2019, Robinson dismissed even concerns about the life of the mother.

“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers,” he said. “It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

Robinson told the attendee in Troy that he had not changed his view and was only responding to the views of others. But there were contradictions even between these comments and his ad.

“That 12 weeks, exceptions for rape and incest — I’m not going to say it’s reasonable,” he told the woman.

The exceptions he called common sense in the ad were unreasonable in Troy.

“My faith allows me to live with that, because that’s where the consensus is,” he said.

He added: “Do I want to continue to lower it? You better know it.”

Here is a snapshot of some of the things Robinson has said about abortion over the last few years.

From his 2021 memoir:

• “Abortion is murder. People who do that are murdering a human being because that human being is inconveniencing them.”
• “[Abortion] is no different than, for instance, me killing my neighbor because he’s standing in the way of me having the job that I want. 

• “Abortion is a root cause of many of our society’s problems,” like gun violence in schools. 

• “When people don’t respect life at its beginning, at its most vulnerable, how can you expect to have a generation of children who will respect life at all.” 
• “I’m hard pressed to get people to agree that legalized abortion has these terrible effects on society,” he wrote. “But I’m not going to give up bringing it up and calling it out.”
• “We must acknowledge that life exists at the moment. God endows his creation with life, and each individual has the God-given right to life. That is why I am so determined to fight for the unborn.”
• “A pre-baby is a baby. And a baby is a human being.”

Speeches and social media

• “When I first started running for office, I was advised not to say that abortion is murder. What else am I supposed to call it? Abortion is murder.” (2021 speech.) 
• “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.” (2024 speech)