One of the leaders of the Republican National Convention’s platform committee, which shapes the party’s official stance on key issues, has a
Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck at CNN:
One of the leaders of the Republican National Convention’s platform committee, which shapes the party’s official stance on key issues, has a history of pushing extreme anti-abortion positions, including advocating for a national ban without exceptions for rape or incest. He also entertained the possibility of jailing women who get abortions and the doctors who perform them.
Ed Martin, the deputy policy director for the convention’s platform committee, is one of three people the Republican National Committee selected in May to help craft the party’s platform, which serves as a blueprint for the Republican Party’s agenda by detailing policy positions and how Republicans and former President Donald Trump would govern if elected. The platform is expected to be pared down this year, slashing the length of the document to focus on Trump’s agenda for a second term. Martin has consistently espoused a hardline position on abortion, criticizing Republicans with a more moderate stance on the issue, and has even questioned the safety of birth control. “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 his radio show in June 2022 – several days after Roe v. Wade was struck down.
Martin, an attorney and former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, was a staunch advocate for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and conspiracy theories the election was rigged against him. He is also the president of Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagles – a socially conservative advocacy group named for the late activist best known for her opposition to feminism. Schlafly and Martin also co-authored the 2016 book, “The Conservative Case for Trump.” [...] Those views contrast with recent efforts by Trump to move away from calls for a national ban and his suggestions that the issue of abortion should be left to the states—drawing the ire of anti-abortion groups. Trump has repeatedly advocated for exceptions in the case of rape, incest and health of the mother, including at Thursday’s debate. “You have to follow your heart, but you have to get elected also,” Trump said during the debate. Trump also said that he “will not block” abortion medication if elected president.
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Opposition to abortion pills
Martin has also said he opposes language in abortion bans that allows for abortion to save the life of a mother, falsely saying on his radio show in June 2022, “It’s an absolute scientific fact that no abortion is ever performed to save the life of the mother. None, zero, zilch.” The Supreme Court ruled last week that emergency abortions could be performed in Idaho in cases where the life of a pregnant woman is at stake, though the decision provides little clarity on the threshold for life-saving exceptions. Martin also falsely claimed multiple times that medically-induced abortion, which he referred to as a chemical abortion, and birth control pills were dangerous and “damaging,” repeatedly criticizing the “loosey goosey regulation around pill abortion” and that it could be ordered via mail.
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RNC platform
Martin is one of three leaders now shaping the GOP platform – along with Russ Vought, the influential former White House Office of Management and Budget director in the Trump administration, and Randy Evans, a former US ambassador to Luxembourg during the Trump administration.
CNN’s KFile exposes RNC Platform Committee member Ed Martin’s support for extreme and draconian anti-abortion policies, such as imprisoning both the doctors who performs abortions and the pregnant person who obtain abortions, support for a nationwide abortion ban without exceptions, and opposes birth control and medication abortions.
Martin serves as the President of Phyllis Schlafly Eagles. He is also a radio host, a former Missouri Republican Party chair, and a former CNN contributor.
See Also:
MMFA: Watch CNN's report on anti-abortion radio host Ed Martin's role in crafting Republican Party policy
