Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, ex-Trump administration officials and allies in lockstep on total abortion bans
Allies of Donald Trump and former administration officials are working on plans to severely restrict abortion rights on the national level should he return to the White House after November’s election, according to a report from The New York Times.
Right here in North Carolina, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and his campaign have also expressed an interest in placing even more extreme restrictions on reproductive care in our state, going as far as to call for a complete ban.
The restrictions Trump’s allies are working on “would go far beyond proposals for a national ban or the laws enacted in conservative states across the country,” The Times reported. Those anti-abortion plans are “sweeping and legally sophisticated,” and some would involve enforcing the Comstock Act – a rarely used obscenity law passed in 1873 – to make it a criminal offense to ship any materials used in abortion procedures, including abortion pills, which make up for the majority of abortions in the U.S.
Jonathan F. Mitchell, an anti-abortion lawyer who has represented Trump in arguments before the Supreme Court, told The New York Times that anti-abortion strategists had intentionally been quiet about these plans due to how much of a liability the issue has become for Republicans in recent elections and because Trump can’t keep quiet about anything.
“I hope he doesn’t know about the existence of Comstock because I just don’t want him to shoot off his mouth,” Mitchell said of Trump. “I think the pro-life groups should keep their mouths shut as much as possible until the election.”
As for Robinson, he has previously said that he would ban abortion in all circumstances, including rape and incest. He’s known to compare abortion to murder and has said that once a woman is pregnant she no longer has a say over the decisions she makes for herself because her body is no longer her own.
Despite the overwhelming proof of his actual views, he has recently said he doesn’t remember his past statements on abortion and has also said that he won’t talk about the “a-word” – abortion – anymore. The problem for Robinson is that at the same time he’s pretending to have forgotten his own views, he’s reiterated those beliefs on TV, in interviews and at campaign appearances.
At a Feb. 3 event in Pitt County, Robinson told a constituent that he would “absolutely” protect life from conception.
“We’ve got to do it that same way they rolled it forward, we’ve got to do it the same way with rolling it back,” he said. “We’ve got it down to 12 weeks. The next goal is to get it down to 6, and then just keep moving from there.”
