Report: GOP Rep. urged woman from affair to get abortion despite his anti-abortion stance
Text messages suggest Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, urged a woman with whom he was having an affair to have an abortion, according to a report by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The newspaper obtained documents featuring apparent text messages between the woman, Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist, and Murphy from January.
"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 in a text to the congressman on Jan. 25, the report said.
A reply from Murphy's phone number said, "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."
Murphy confirmed earlier this month that he had an affair.
The report also referenced a six-page memo titled, "Office Conduct and Behavior: Harassment/Legal Compliance" from June that the congressman's chief of staff, Susan Mosychuk, seems to have written. In it, Mosychuk said Murphy created a state of "terror" in their office.
This revelation came before the House was expected to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would impose on abortions after 20 weeks, on Tuesday evening. Murphy is one of its co-sponsors.
CBS News' Matt Joseloff contributed to this report.
