President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Ed Martin, a hardline, socially conservative activist and commentator, to serve as the next chief of staff at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

As CNN first reported in July, Martin has publicly advocated for a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest and has raised imposing criminal penalties on women and doctors involved in abortions.

Martin is a former chair of the Missouri Republican Party chair and former radio host, and served as one of the leaders of the 2024 Republican National Convention’s platform committee, which shaped the party’s official stance on key issues. He is the current president of socially conservative group Phyllis Schlafly Eagles.

The OMB plays a key role in shaping the president’s economic and legislative agenda by reviewing funding proposals and ensuring they align with the administration’s policy priorities.

Martin’s role at OMB could have a potential impact on how federal funds are allocated for programs related to women’s health or reproductive rights.

CNN first reported Martin’s comments about potentially jailing women for abortions when he was named deputy policy director for the Republican National Convention’s platform committee. Ultimately, at Trump’s request, the platform softened its language on abortion to remove support for a national ban.

A Pew Research Center survey from May 2024 showed that 63% of US adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Martin didn’t respond to CNN’s requests for comment on the initial story or this one.

During his radio show in May 2022, Martin repeatedly discussed the prospect of imprisoning women who undergo abortions, stating, “If you believe it’s a baby – I do – then you have to do something to protect the baby.”

Martin has also urged anti-abortion activists to frame the debate in terms of protecting the unborn rather than adopting the framing used by abortion rights advocates about being about a women’s choice.

He argued that if the discussion focuses on a woman’s right to choose, it becomes politically difficult to justify criminal penalties for women who get abortions. However, by shifting the argument to focus on the life of the baby, the possibility of punitive measures for women and doctors becomes open.

“The late Phyllis Schlafly, whom I worked so closely with, used to say, ‘If you get to claim and frame the argument, you almost certainly get to win,’” Martin said. “In other words, if you take their framing, it’s a woman’s right. Are you gonna put women in jail? No. It’s about a baby. Now, what do we do? Frame the argument. Own the argument.”

At the OMB, Martin will report to incoming director Russell Vought, another staunch conservative who previously served in the role during Trump’s first term. Martin and Vought also served together on the platform committee.

In the days after a draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade was leaked in May 2022, Martin first discussed on his radio show possible prison sentences for women and doctors who perform abortions.

“If you ban abortion in Louisiana, is a doctor who has an abortion breaking the law? Yes. Should he be punished? Yes – I think that seems obvious. What is the punishment? Not sure yet. Could be criminal, could be a jail sentence, I suppose,” he said.

Trump praised Martin in a Truth Social post announcing the selection, writing, “Ed is a winner who will help Make America Great Again!”

Martin has also opposed exceptions for abortions to save the life of the mother, calling it “an absolute scientific fact that no abortion is ever performed to save the life of the mother. None, zero, zilch.”

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, complications during pregnancy can pose life-threatening risks, sometimes requiring an abortion to preserve the mother’s life. Abortions may be necessary to save the life of the mother suffering from pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia or an ectopic pregnancy.

“The true bane of the pro-life movement is the faction of fake pro-lifers who claim to believe in the sanctity of human life but are only willing to vote that way with a list of exceptions,” Martin said on another radio show in June 2022 – days after Roe v. Wade was struck down.

His hardline views contrast with Trump’s recent efforts to moderate his rhetoric on abortion, as the issue has become politically challenging for Republicans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Trump has advocated for exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother and said that the issue of abortion should largely be left to the states.

Still, Martin has continued to push for absolute restrictions on abortion, rejecting exceptions of any kind, including, as he said in July 2022, the rape of a 10-year-old Ohio girl.

“Don’t tell me to stop talking about abortion,” Martin said in April 2024 on his radio show. “Don’t tell me that because you don’t think it’s a winner politically, I’m supposed to stop talking about abortion.”

Former President Jimmy Carter, a Georgia peanut farmer who vowed to restore morality and truth to politics after an era of White House scandal and who redefined post-presidential service, died Sunday at the age of 100.

The Carter Center said the 39th president died in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family.

Carter had been in home hospice care since February 2023 after a series of short hospital stays.

Carter, a Democrat, served a single term from 1977 to 1981, losing a reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. Despite his notable achievements as a peacemaker, Carter’s presidency is largely remembered as an unfulfilled four years shaken by blows to America’s economy and standing overseas. His most enduring legacy, though, might be as a globetrotting elder statesman and human rights pioneer during an indefatigable 43-year “retirement.”

ATLANTA, GA – SEPTEMBER 30: Former president Jimmy Carter prior to the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 30, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
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Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, dies at age 100
President Joe Biden said in a statement that “America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” as well as a man of “great character and courage, hope and optimism.”

“With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe,” Biden said. He declared January 9 a National Day of Mourning and called on “people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.”

President-elect Donald Trump urged everyone to keep the Carter family in their prayers. “Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Carter became the oldest living former president when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush in March 2019.

Carter’s beloved wife, Rosalynn, died in November 2023. They had been inseparable during their 77-year marriage, and after she passed away, the former president said in a statement that “as long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

The former president attended his wife’s memorial events, including a private burial and a televised tribute service in Atlanta, where he was seated in the front row in a reclined wheelchair. He did not deliver any remarks.

Carter took office in 1977 with the earnest promise to lead a government as “good and honest and decent and compassionate and filled with love as are the American people” following what had started as an unlikely long-shot bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination.

The Southerner with a flashing smile did enjoy significant successes, particularly abroad. He forged a rare, enduring Middle East peace deal between Israel and Egypt that stands to this day, formalized President Richard Nixon’s opening to communist China and put human rights at the center of US foreign policy.

But Carter was ultimately felled by a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran, in which revolutionary students flouted the US superpower by holding dozens of Americans in Tehran. The feeling of US malaise triggered by the crisis was exacerbated by Carter’s domestic struggles, including a sluggish economy, inflation and an energy crisis.

At times, Carter’s principled moral tone and determination to strip the presidency of ostentation, such as by selling the official yacht, Sequoia, seemed to verge on sanctimony. But out of office, Carter won admiration by living his values. Just a day after one of several falls he suffered in 2019, he was back out building homes for Habitat for Humanity, even with an ugly black eye and 14 stitches — and teaching Sunday school as he had done several hundreds of times.

The devout Southern Baptist’s life’s work was only just beginning when he limped out of the White House, humiliated by Reagan’s 1980 Republican landslide, in which the incumbent won only six states and the District of Columbia.

“As one of the youngest of former presidents, I expected to have many useful years ahead of me,” Carter wrote in his 1982 memoir, “Keeping Faith.” He proved as good as his word, going on to become a humanitarian icon, perhaps more popular outside the United States than he was at home.

Jimmy Carter, who served a single full presidential term without the chance to appoint a Supreme Court justice, nonetheless left behind an incomparable judicial legacy.

He was the first president to significantly diversify the lower federal courts by appointing female and minority judges — a point that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg often touted.

Carter named Ginsburg to an important Washington-based US Court of Appeals in 1980, which positioned her for eventual elevation to the Supreme Court.

His presidency was the first during which women made up a significant number of confirmed circuit and district court nominees, according to a Congressional Research Service compilation of judicial appointments. During his one-term presidency, 41 of his appointees were women.

Women made up 12 of his 59 circuit court appointees and 29 of his total 203 district court appointees. Until Carter’s tenure, only two women had ever been named as circuit court judges and six as district court judges.

“Once Carter appointed women to the bench in numbers, there was no turning back,” Ginsburg, who died in 2020, declared in one speech.

Recounting the earlier resistance to women on the bench, Ginsburg added that when former President Harry Truman, who served from 1945 to 1953, broached the possibility of a woman on the court, justices reportedly said a woman justice “would make it difficult for (the other justices) to meet informally with robes, and perhaps shoes, off, shirt collars unbuttoned and discuss their problems and come to decisions.”

In addition to the 41 women judges Carter named to the federal judiciary, he appointed a record 57 people of color to the bench, including those who would become prominent federal appellate judges such as Leon Higginbotham, on the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit; Amalya Kearse, on the New York-based 2nd Circuit; and Damon Keith on the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit.