Pro-Life Lt. Gov. Robinson and Wife Admit to Abortion, But Rue Their Decision | Eastern North Carolina Now

By L.A. Williams
Christian Action League
March 30, 2022

How future voters will respond to the news that outspoken abortion foe Mark Robinson once paid for the fatal procedure remains to be seen, but many in the pro-life community have expressed their support for the lieutenant governor. 

“The most passionate people for a righteous cause are most often the people who in some way were beforehand contributors to the problem,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League.

“No one has more credibility to speak to the abortion issue than someone who has experienced the sin and error of it and has repented. No one can speak more effectively and lovingly to all of the emotions and angst of an unwanted pregnancy.”

It was those emotions that Robinson and his wife, Yolanda Robinson, said they dealt with before and after making the decision to abort the child they conceived while dating in 1989. 

“It was the hardest decision we have ever made, and sadly, we made the wrong one,” the lieutenant governor said in a video released March 24 on Facebook. “This decision has been with us ever since. It’s because of this experience and 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.”

The couple posted the video days after a 2012 social media post in which Robinson admitted paying for an abortion resurfaced in the media.

At that time, he wrote in response to a comment about a post he made about the horror of late-term abortion: “I intend to keep pointing those fingers at me first. Abortion is wrong. It’s wrong when others do it and it was wrong when I (YES I) paid to have MY own child aborted in 1989.”

In last week’s video, he pointed to how Jesus’ forgiveness had changed his and his wife’s lives and expressed hope that their story might encourage others in a similar situation. 

“We have a Savior who forgives us of our sins [and] offers us grace,” Robinson said. “No one is perfect, but no one is too far gone to be saved.”

Creech echoed that truth: “Jesus taught that he that has been forgiven much loves much. Which people are most passionate in their love for Christ? Typically, it’s those who have sinned greatly, those who realize how much they’ve been forgiven. They know clearly the spiritual impoverishment from whence they’ve come and how they arrived where they are today in God’s economy of grace.”

Early in February Creech published a column on the CAL website about the importance of extending grace to those who have had abortions. 

“Let us speak boldly against abortion,” he wrote. “But let us also say with equal tenderness there is room at the Cross for anyone – no matter how egregious the sin.”

Groups such as the North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition and the North Carolina Values Coalition made it clear that they were not put off by Robinson’s admission, but were instead thankful for his transparency.

“Through prayer, healing, and forgiveness, many former abortion clinic workers, OBGYN doctors, mothers, and fathers have transformed their abortion regret into a mission to diligently advocate for the unborn,” the Faith and Freedom Coalition asserted in its statement of support.

Similarly, the North Carolina Values Coalition pointed out that “People who have walked through the pain of abortion in some way can be the strongest advocates for the unborn after that experience.”

“We haven’t heard his story yet,” the Coalition’s statement read, “but what we do know is today Lt. Governor Robinson is genuine in his commitment to protect life.”

Robinson, elected to his post in 2020, has said he is considering a run for governor in 2024.