Former mistress accuses pro-life GOP congressman of urging her to get an abortion: report

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), a prominent pro-life conservative previously backed by the National Right to Life Committee, urged a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair with to get an abortion, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

"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’s former lover Shannon Edwards wrote in a text message after the GOP Congressman wrote an anti-abortion post on his Facebook account.

In a transcript of the text message thread obtained by the Post-Gazette, Murphy tried to mitigate Edwards’ charges of hypocrisy. "I get what you say about my March for life [sic] message,” Murphy wrote to Edwards. “I've never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more. I will."

Murphy last month admitted to an affair with Edwards, a forensic psychologist and personal friend, after Edwards’ husband sought to depose the congressman during divorce proceedings.

“Last year I became involved in an affair with a personal friend,” Murphy said. “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.”

Employees have also accused Murphy of creating a hostile work environment and engaging in an "ongoing and ever more pronounced pattern of sustained inappropriate behavior,” according to a memo allegedly written by Susan Mosychuk, Murphy’s chief of staff, the Post-Gazette reports.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Murphy will be voting on a 20-week abortion ban Tuesday—a bill he co-sponsored.