Antiabortion Congressman Steps Down Following Report He Urged Girlfriend to Have Abortion

Update, Oct. 5, 1:45 p.m. PT: Rep. Tim Murphy has now announced that he plans to resign later this month rather than retire when his term concludes, as he previously said he would do. "This afternoon I received a letter of resignation from Congressman Tim Murphy, effective October 21," Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement to Politico. "It was Dr. Murphy's decision to move on to the next chapter of his life, and I support it."

Update, Oct. 5, 9 a.m. PT: Rep. Tim Murphy has announced that he will not run for Congress again. "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 released to press. The announcement came one day after the House passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act, of which he was a cosponsor, and two days after the report finding that Murphy urged a girlfriend to have an abortion was published.

Original Story: Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy (pictured above, far left) was the subject of a stunning story published in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Oct. 3, which reports that the married, publicly antiabortion lawmaker encouraged a woman he had an affair with to abort. Murphy is one of the cosponsors of the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act," which is widely referred to as the 20-week abortion ban. Pro-choice advocates have countered that the legislation relies on "junk science" to undermine the rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. The story on Rep. Murphy was published just hours before the House was set to vote on the legislation.

Murphy is also a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus who, in 2015, was awarded for his commitment to "family values, religious freedom, human life, and individual liberty" by the conservative Christian Family Research Council. Last month, he admitted to an affair with Shannon Edwards. The paper reports that in January of this year, Edwards — concerned she may be pregnant — sent the following text to Murphy: "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."

Later the same day, the paper says, a text from Murphy's number replied: "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."

Edwards's text, the paper claims, followed a Facebook post by Murphy that read, in part: "The United States is one of just seven countries worldwide that permits elective abortion more than halfway through pregnancy (beyond 20 weeks). It is a tragic shame that America is leading the world in discarding and disregarding the most vulnerable." The post went on to state Murphy's commitment to a bill that would prohibit the use of federal funds to pay for abortion and his hope that "we will once again be a nation committed to honoring life from the moment of conception."

The text messages were among a sheaf of documents the paper said it obtained. Those also included a lengthy memo from Murphy's chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, alleging a hostile workplace. The paper reports that Mosychuk wrote that Murphy created an atmosphere of "terror" by berating and threatening his staff. According to the Post-Gazette, she also described Murphy as "erratic" and "abusive" in the memo, and described an episode in which he put staff members at risk driving in a rainstorm while playing on his iPad, watching YouTube, and texting. The paper also reports that she recalled an instance in which Murphy verbally abused and chastised an employee before pushing a pile of documents to the floor, then demanding his staff pick them up.

Murphy represents Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "repeated voice mail messages" left on his cell phone on Oct. 2 went unanswered. POPSUGAR has contacted Murphy's Pittsburgh office requesting comment and will update this story if we hear back.