North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a hard-line conservative who has long spoken out against abortion, said in Facebook comments in 2012 that he paid for the mother of his “unborn child” to have an abortion in 1989.
“I’m not saying abortion is wrong cause I said so it’s wrong cause God says so,” the comment linked to Robinson’s personal Facebook account said in August 2012. “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.”
Robinson, the highest-ranking state Republican in the executive office and an expected gubernatorial candidate was elected in 2020 on what his campaign calls a “pro-life” platform. Since taking office, he has continued to speak out against abortion at rallies.
“It’s something that I’ve wanted to talk about for years, but there’s confidentiality that I have to be concerned about,” he told WRAL in a brief interview Wednesday afternoon. Robinson said he planned to release a more extensive statement about the matter.
At an anti-abortion rally in January 2021, Robinson said, “We allow the murder of the most innocent human beings on earth and we do it with impunity.”
At the North Carolina GOP convention in June, Robinson specifically called on fathers to be involved in their child’s life.
“Once you make a baby, it’s not your body anymore—it’s y’all’s body. And, yes, that includes the daddy,” he said.
On Tuesday, social media posts resurfaced showing Facebook comments about the purported 1989 abortion. They were posted by Robinson’s personal Facebook account on Aug. 9, 2012.
About a month after the initial comment, Robinson’s account responded to a critic.
“I saw your comment on my other post and I intend to keep pointing those fingers at me first,” the account said in September. “Abortion is wrong. It’s wrong when others do it and it was wrong when I (YES I) paid to have MY own child aborted in 1989.”
Axios on Wednesday was the first to report on the September 2012 comment. Its report came after WRAL posted a story about the comments from that August.
Apart from the 2012 Facebook comments, WRAL hasn’t found any news reports about Robinson discussing a personal connection to someone who had the procedure.
The Facebook comments remained public and live on Robinson’s Facebook page on Wednesday.
NC GOP spokesman Jeff Moore said the party wouldn’t comment because it was “a personal matter.”
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.”
Robinson, who gained popularity in conservative circles after a speech about gun rights to the Greensboro City Council in 2018, is known for making controversial statements. In the past year, he has come under fire for comments about the LGBTQ community. Robinson has said abortion should take precedent over other issues.
“We cannot say that ‘Black lives matter,’ or ‘all lives matter,’ or ‘blue lives matter’ until we say ‘unborn lives matter,’ because that’s where we all start,” Robinson said at the January 2021 rally.
Robinson includes several details of his personal life under the “pro-life” section of his campaign website.
“Mark grew up as the 9th of 10 siblings. In poverty, and with an abusive alcoholic father, he ended up in foster care,” the website says.
“The radical left believes stories like [Robinson’s] should not exist because low-income families should abort their babies rather than giving them the opportunity to grow up in suboptimal conditions. As a Christian, Mark will honor the sanctity of life,” the website says.
The section does not mention any personal experience with an abortion.
