Anti-abortion congressman Tim Murphy announces retirement after pressuring girlfriend to get abortion

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy, a longtime supporter of anti-abortion legislation, said Wednesday he will not seek re-election next year following revelations he had pressured the woman with whom he had an extramarital affair 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.

"In the coming weeks I will take personal time to seek help as my family and I continue to work through our personal difficulties and seek healing," he continued. "I ask you to respect our privacy during this time."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday published a text message from Shannon Edwards, with whom Murphy admitted last month that he had been in a relationship, in which she took him to task for an anti-abortion post on his 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," she wrote on Jan. 25.

In response, Murphy said his staff was responsible for the posts.

"I get what you say about my March for life messages," he said. "I've never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don't write any more. I will."

Edwards turned out not to be pregnant, the Post-Gazette reported. Her relationship with the congressman was first exposed by the paper, which had successfully sought a motion to unseal files from Edwards' divorce from her husband, Jesse Sally, a sports medicine physician. Sally, sought to depose Murphy as part of the proceedings to demonstrate marital misconduct.

The Post-Gazette also published a June 8 memo from Murphy's chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, accusing the congressman of "ongoing and ever more pronounced pattern of sustained inappropriate behavior."

Murphy, who is in his eighth term in the House and represents the deep-red 18th District in southwest Pennsylvania, is a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus and is popular among anti-abortion groups. Just hours after the Post-Gazette published the text messages, Murphy voted in favor of legislation that would criminalize abortions after 20 weeks, a bill that has passed the lower chamber multiple times but been blocked in the Senate.

Both Murphy and Edwards confirmed that their relationship has ended. The congressman, 65, and his wife, the former Nanette Messig, have a daughter and two grandchildren.

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