A nominally pro-life congressman who admitted last month to having an affair asked his mistress to procure an abortion when he thought she was pregnant, text messages show.
In their conversation on Jan. 25, Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh, confronted Rep. Tim Murphy, Pennsylvania Republican, about privately asking her to obtain an abortion while publicly opposing the procedure.
“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,” Ms. Edwards wrote.
“I get what you say about my March for life messages,” Mr. Murphy responded. “I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write any more. I will.”
The text messages were first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The affair came to light when the husband of Ms. Edwards filed for divorce in July and sought to depose the congressman as part of the proceedings. Mr. Murphy publicly admitted to the extramarital relationship last month.
Mr. Murphy is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus and received a 100 percent score from the National Right to Life last session.
On Tuesday, he voted in favor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. That bill passed the House by a near party-line vote of 237-189.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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