GOP candidate who called abortion 'genocide' admits his wife had one in new TV ad

Far-right North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson appeared to be trying to soften his absolutist stance on abortion with a new TV ad revealing his wife had the procedure, according to NBC News.

"Thirty years ago, my wife and I made a very difficult decision. We had an abortion," said Robinson. He did not reveal many details beyond that, but added that he agrees with North Carolina's current 12-week abortion ban, passed after one state lawmaker defected from the Democratic to the Republican Party and gave the GOP enough votes to override Gov. Roy Cooper's veto.

Robinson, currently the lieutenant governor, is running against Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein, as Cooper is term-limited and the seat is open.

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The message is a relative softening from Robinson's years of far more harsh anti-abortion rhetoric, where he called abortion, among other things, "genocide," and said on Facebook Live that, “Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers ... It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

Robinson, an ally of former President Donald Trump, has come under fire for a number of other past comments, including his questioning of the Holocaust, his belief that the country's politics were better back when women couldn't vote, his suggestion that former NFL star Ray Rice's girlfriend deserved her domestic abuse, his attacks on teen school shooting survivors, and his belief that children below fifth grade shouldn't be taught science or history.

In addition to all the controversies over his opinions, Robinson has also faced scandals over his past, including his failure to file taxes for five years and allegations that he falsified documents certifying he trained the people working at a day care he and his wife owned in the 2000s.