North Carolina lieutenant governor tells pregnant women: 'It's not your body anymore'

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson gave a speech on Friday at his state party convention that many would consider wildly offensive. Included in his comments were statements that imply women lose the right to control their bodies once they get pregnant, that transgender people are not worthy of respect, and that Black Americans don’t deserve reparations but rather owe a debt to their enslaved ancestors.

Local station WRAL reported on Robinson’s remarks, saying the crowd of Republican voters ate up his remarks, which included nearly every right-wing culture war issue.

He spoke about his opposition to abortion, even for victims of rape or incest, appearing to allude to Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, saying he felt no sympathy for those who sought abortion.

Robinson said:

I can remember this as a young man, when we were arguing whether or not we should be required to wear seatbelts or if we should wear seatbelts. I can always remember there would be one person who would say, “What if I get stuck on the railroad tracks and my seatbelt won’t come off?” No. 1, if you are stuck on the train tracks, that is Darwin. That’s not any of my concern, that is Darwin. You saw those train tracks. If you couldn’t get past them, I cannot help you. That is not a good argument. We’re not talking about a bunch of people who go down to the abortion clinic because they’ve been raped or because they’ve been a victim of incest. We’re talking about a culture that we have created in this society that tells you, ‘When you want to feel good, go on. If you get in a little trouble, it’s alright to murder somebody to get out of it.’ It is not! It is not OK!

Aside from his abortion comments, Robinson also said of pregnant women that, “It’s not your body anymore, it’s y’all’s body.”

“And, yes, that includes the daddy,” he added. “She’s not your baby mama anymore. She ought to be your wife.”

He also spoke of his support of GOP bills seeking to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, saying: “I want to be that person at the track meet that stands up and says … ‘Them two fellas that won this track meet, they’re not girls. Why are they out there?’ That’s two boys. I don’t care what you call them. They’re painted-up, striped-up jackasses. They’re not women.”

He also rejected the premise that systemic racism exists in the United States, and said that Black people are not owed reparations for slavery, but rather owe their enslaved ancestors.

“Nobody owes you anything for slavery,” Robinson said. “If you want to tell the truth about it, it is you who owes. Why do you owe? Because somebody in those fields took strikes for you! … Somebody had to walk through Jim Crow for you! Somebody fought wars and died for you!”

And he fear-mongered about antifa, claiming that the loose movement of anti-fascists “wants to roam the streets and beat you into submission.”

Robinson has a history of making offensive remarks.

He has spewed bigotry against LGBTQ people, smearing them as “devil worshiping child molesters.”

“You CAN NOT love God and support the homosexual agenda,” Robinson wrote in a 2017 Facebook post.

He also made fun of the survivors of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, calling the teenage survivors who have since become gun control advocates “silly little immature media prosti-tots.”

And he attacked former first lady Michelle Obama by saying she’s a “man.”

Robinson’s rhetoric has turned him into a darling of the right-wing media and pundit class.

His speech was met with praise from right-wing pundits who called Robinson’s remarks “phenomenal,” “powerful,” and “worth every second.”

In fact, the right-wing outlet RedState called Robinson “a leader to watch” following his speech.

Robinson had been considering running for Senate in North Carolina in 2022 but passed on a bid.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.