North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat who is running for governor against Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, plans to launch his first two television ads on Tuesday, one of which attacks his opponents’ views on abortion in the high-stakes battleground race, according to a campaign official who shared the ads exclusively with NBC News.
One 30-second ad, titled “Listen,” features Robinson, who has been an outspoken critic of abortion rights, talking on a Facebook Live stream in 2019 and railing against the procedure, the campaign official said.
“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers,” Robinson says in the clip used in the ad. “It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
The ad, which is part of a seven-figure buy by Stein’s campaign, also features Robinson appearing to say if he was governor and had a “willing” state legislature, he would sign legislation into law that bans abortion “for any reason.”
The Robinson campaign argued the ad took those comments out of context. In the interview from 2023 featured in the ad, Robinson went on to say banning all abortions would not prevent them from happening and that he’d want to pass a “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.
The spot also features Robinson saying: “For me there is no compromise on abortion. It makes no difference to me why or how that child ended up in that womb.”
Stein, who has been an outspoken supporter of abortion rights, has vowed to defend access to the procedure and women’s reproductive freedoms.
“This November, North Carolinians will have a stark choice between a safer, stronger North Carolina with Josh Stein or Mark Robinson’s focus on stripping women of their reproductive freedoms and a vision for division that will kill jobs,” Jeff Allen, Stein’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “Over the next five months, we are prepared to make sure every North Carolinian knows the stakes of this race — and we’re just getting started.”
When asked for comment about Stein’s attacks on Robinson’s abortion stances, Mike Lonergan, the communications director for Robinson’s campaign, said Robinson is “pro-life” because of the “painful and difficult” experience he and his wife had when they decided to get an abortion in 1989. Robinson has since said the decision to have an abortion was “wrong.”
“He’s said that as governor he would sign a heartbeat bill with exceptions for rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger,” Lonergan said in a statement of Robinson. “Lt. Gov. Robinson also wants to turn North Carolina into a destination state for life by doing more to support women that choose life; like improving our foster-care and adoption systems; and preserving access to IVF.”
Lonergan also attacked President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole for their stances on abortion.
“Biden, Stein and the Democrats are recycling their same old playbook they used in 2022,” Lonergan said in the statement. “It failed then and it will fail now. North Carolina voters don’t support the Biden-Stein agenda of taxpayer-funded, late-term abortion on-demand. That’s extreme and out of step with our state’s values.”
The second ad from the Stein campaign Tuesday focuses on his work on rape kit backlogs and the fentanyl crisis as North Carolina attorney general.
