Politics
11:22, 06-Oct-2017
Pro-life Republican resigns from US Congress in abortion scandal
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Republican Congressman Tim Murphy, a leading anti-abortion lawmaker in the US, has announced he will resign on October 21 – days after reports that he had encouraged his lover to terminate a pregnancy.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday revealed details of text messages between the married congressman and forensic psychologist Shannon Edwards, encouraging her to have an abortion.
Murphy admitted in September that he’d had an extramarital relationship with Edwards, following information released during Edwards' divorce proceedings.
Special election
Murphy announced on Wednesday that he would step down at the end of his term in 2018, but by Thursday he had informed Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan that he would be resigning.
Paul Ryan accepted Tim Murphy's resignation on Thursday. /Speaker.gov Screenshot
Paul Ryan accepted Tim Murphy's resignation on Thursday. /Speaker.gov Screenshot
The resignation will lead to a special election in Murphy's congressional district in suburban Pittsburgh.
The district is historically a safe Republican seat and was comfortably won by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. However, Democrats have invested heavily in special elections since Trump's election.
Text messages revealed
Murphy, 64, had been a strong pro-life voice during his 15 years in Congress, and only on Tuesday voted in favor of a bill that would criminalize abortions performed after 20 weeks.
Edwards, who it later emerged was not pregnant, implied hypocrisy in a text message revealed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday.
"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 wrote, according to the newspaper, in response to an anti-abortion Facebook post on Murphy’s page.
Murphy announced on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election -- the next day he resigned. /Murphy.house.gov Screenshot
Murphy announced on Wednesday that he would not seek re-election -- the next day he resigned. /Murphy.house.gov Screenshot
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that a text from Murphy’s cell phone number said in response: "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."
The newspaper also reported on a memo apparently written by Murphy’s chief of staff Susan Mosychuk, describing “ongoing and ever more pronounced pattern of sustained inappropriate behavior” and accusing him of “hostile, erratic, unstable, angry, aggressive and abusive behavior.”
He has since been accused of inappropriate behavior by staff, Politico reported on Thursday evening, including claims that workers were called “stupid” and “worthless.”
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