NC governor’s race: Where Robinson stands on abortion and what the GOP Senate leader says
Welcome to the governor’s race edition of our Under the Dome politics newsletter. I’m Dawn Vaughan, The News & Observer’s state Capitol bureau chief.
The first million-dollar ad buy is out in the governor’s race between Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
Stein’s ad, which came out on Tuesday morning and cost more than $1 million to air across statewide television and digital markets, shows a variety of clips of Robinson talking about abortion.
Robinson, who chose with his now-wife to end her pregnancy in abortion in 1989, is adamantly anti-abortion now.
He said on state Rep. Jeff McNeely’s radio show that if he won the election he would sign a “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortion after cardiac activity is detected around six weeks into gestation. The ad showed a clip from that show, and also played a clip of a newly revealed Facebook Live video Robinson did in 2019, saying that women should “keep your skirt down.”
I watched the entire Robinson Facebook Live, most of which is about abortion, and wrote about what else he said on that video. More details in that story.
Ad quotes Robinson on abortion: Women should ‘keep your skirt down.’ What else he said.
What the most powerful Republican senator says about abortion
While Robinson wants to sign a “heartbeat” abortion bill into law, the only way he gets one is if the General Assembly, which is currently completely controlled by Republicans, sends him one.
The abortion bill that became law in 2023, Senate Bill 20, was a deal brokered among Republicans. They agreed on a 12-week ban, with multiple exceptions, after the first trimester of pregnancy.
Early in that intraparty debate, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, told reporters where he stood on abortion legislation, which was pretty much where the final law landed.
So I asked him this past week what he thinks legislation from Republicans about abortion could look like next year, if Robinson wins the governor’s race. Berger said he prefers not to change the current abortion law next year. He also said, as he has before, that he doesn’t want abortion legislation passed this legislative session (the House doesn’t, either).
But there are a few unknowns out there, including the results of the election not just for governor, but for all 170 seats in the General Assembly, as they’re on November ballots, too.
“I personally would not be in favor of making any changes next year. We will see what happens as far as the election, and what the majorities look like in both the House and the Senate next year. And we’ll just see what happens. I can just speak to where I am,” he said, noting that other senators may think differently.
Berger said that there are Republican lawmakers who support “heartbeat” legislation. But he also pointed out what polling shows, as he mentioned ahead of the 2023 law as well.
“One of the things that I’ve looked at is where the vast majority of people in the state of North Carolina are. And I’ve yet to see any polling that shows that prohibiting abortions, or having a six- or eight-week time frame, is something that enjoys support of a majority of people in the state of North Carolina — or a majority of voters in the state of North Carolina. And it’s, I mean, it’s not even close,” Berger said.
Stein, like other Democrats, opposed North Carolina’s recent change to abortion law as well as the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Stay informed about #ncpol
Don’t forget to follow our Under the Dome tweets and listen to our Under the Dome podcast to stay up to date. Our new episode posts Monday morning, I’m joined by my legislative politics team colleagues Kyle Ingram and Avi Bajpai. We talk about the Senate Democrats walking out before a vote on a surprise mask/campaign finance bill on Thursday, and how that may play out this week when the bill is in the House. Plus the latest on an abortion lawsuit and early voting.
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