Report: 'Pro-life' GOP lawmaker urged woman with whom he had an affair to have an abortion

Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy encouraged a woman with whom he admitted to having an affair to have an abortion, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Republican lawmaker, who is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, admitted last month to having an extramarital affair with Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh.

'You had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child'

According to text messages obtained by the Post-Gazette, the 32-year-old Edwards sent a text to Murphy in January criticizing him for a pro-life statement posted on his official Facebook page:

"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 to Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of what the Post-Gazette called “an unfounded pregnancy scare.”

According to the Post-Gazette, Murphy replied, "I get what you say about my [March for Life] messages.”

“I've never written them,” he added. “Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more. I will."

The Post-Gazette also reported that they obtained a six-page memo to Murphy purportedly written by his chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, that described the lawmaker’s office as a hostile work environment, writing that the congressman denigrated and threatened his staff, creating a state of “terror.”

A spokesperson for the 65-year-old Murphy did not immediately respond to TheBlaze’s request for comment. Edwards declined to comment to the Post-Gazette.

Reaction

Twitter users were quick to characterize Murphy, who is married, as a hypocrite for privately disavowing his public pro-life persona.