Republican Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania reportedly got a woman pregnant and urged her to get an abortion, text messages unearthed Tuesday suggest.
Murphy, who is pro-life, admitted last month to having an affair with psychologist Shannon Edwards. Text messages obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette show Edwards berating the representative for posting pro-life statements on his official Facebook page when he allegedly urged her to get an abortion during a prior pregnancy scare.
A text message from Jan. 25 reads, “And you have zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options.”
Murphy reportedly replied, “I get what you say about my March for life messages. I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
Murphy, a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, has long enjoyed support from pro-life organizations like the Family Research Council and LifePac. It is unclear how those organizations will react to the news.
Murphy publicly admitted to an affair with Edwards after the Post-Gazette obtained court records from the woman’s divorce proceedings last month.
“Last year I became involved in an affair with a personal friend,” Murphy said in a September statement. “This is nobody’s fault but my own, and I offer no excuses. To the extent that there should be any blame in this matter, it falls solely upon me. I ask the media to respect the privacy of my family. They have done nothing wrong and deserve to be left alone.”
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