Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., announced he will retire and not seek re-election in 2018, following a report that the publicly pro-life congressman asked his mistress to have an abortion.
“After discussions with my family and staff, I have come to the decision that I will not seek reelection to Congress at the end of my current term,” Murphy said in a statement to KDKA-Pittsburgh Wednesday.
“I plan to spend my remaining months in office continuing my work as the national leader on mental health care reform, as well as issues affecting working families in southwestern Pennsylvania,” he added. Murphy met with Republican leaders Wednesday after it was revealed Shannon Edwards, the woman with whom Murphy admitted he was involved with in an affair last month, sent a text message to Murphy in January to call him out for a pro-life Facebook post, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“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,” Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh wrote to Murphy, in the wake of an unfounded pregnancy scare.
“I get what you say about my March for life messages,” a text from Murphy’s cell phone number said in response. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.” Murphy was faced with either resigning immediately or announcing his retirement once his term expires.
Murphy is a co-sponsor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would prohibit abortion after 20 weeks except in cases of rape, incest, or instances where the pregnancy poses a risk to the life or health of the mother. He voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday soon after news broke that he told Edwards that she should consider having an abortion. She later learned she was not pregnant.
