A Republican state official who vocally opposes abortion has admitted he once paid for the procedure himself.
Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, made the confession on his Facebook page in 2012. After another Facebook user challenged an anti-abortion message Mr Robinson had posted, the Republican fired back with a startling piece of his personal history.
“I’m not saying abortion is wrong cause [sic] I said so it’s wrong cause God says so,” Mr Robinson wrote. “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.”
“Ok I’m sorry,” replied the apparently rattled Facebook user.
Since then, Mr Robinson has been an outspoken opponent of abortion. On his campaign website when he was running for lieutenant governor, the first item on his list of promises was to “fight for the life of the unborn.”
On Monday, Mr Robinson’s decade-old confession came back to haunt him. Under a tweet quoting one of his anti-abortion speeches, one Twitter user brought up the old Facebook post.
“He fully admits that he paid for an abortion back in the 80’s that was his child,” @amye166 commented. “So, it’s good for me but not for thee (as usual).”
“Wait, really?” another reader asked.
@amye166 then posted a screenshot of the Facebook exchange, which several users retweeted, sparking multiple news reports.
On Thursday, Mr Robinson confirmed that the confession was true. Sitting next to his wife, Yolanda Hill, the lieutenant governor addressed his supporters in a Twitter video message.
“Over 33 years ago, before we were married and before we had kids, we had an abortion,” Mr Robinson said. “It was the hardest decision we have ever made, and sadly, we made the wrong one.”
Mr Robinson said the experience only strengthened his opposition to abortion.
“This decision has been with us ever since,” he said. “It’s because of this experience in our spiritual journey that we are so adamantly pro-life. We know what it’s like to be in that situation, and we know the pain that an abortion causes.”
Mr Robinson has said he is “95 per cent sure” he will run for governor in 2024, and has raised an impressive $1.5m for a potential campaign, WRAL has reported.
The Republican is no stranger to controversy. In October last year, Mr Robinson faced calls to resign after a video resurfaced of him calling homosexuality “filth.” He refused to apologize for the remarks.
