Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, was moved to hospice care on Saturday.

"After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention," the Carter Center said in a statement on Saturday.

Carter, who turned 98 in October, served as president from 1977 to 1981.

The longest-lived former president has suffered from a series of health challenges in recent years, including surviving cancer, a broken hip and other recent hospitalizations for a fractured pelvis and a urinary tract infection.

He grew up in rural Georgia and served as governor of his state before beating incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.

And although the single-term Democratic president left the Oval office with poor approval ratings, he has spent the last several decades of his life committed to public service, including his work with the nonprofit Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity.

Carter has occasionally spoken out on political affairs in recent years. He asked Georgia's now-Governor Brian Kemp to resign from his position as secretary of state while Kemp was running for governor in 2018. In 2019, Carter said he saw Donald Trump as an illegitimate president. Carter also spoke in support of Joe Biden in a video at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are also the longest married couple in presidential history. The pair were seen making a rare public appearance in their hometown of Plains, Ga., in August.

"The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers," the Carter Center concluded in its statement.