Tim Murphy, a Republican member of Congress representing Pennsylvania’s 18th District, is one of 182 co-sponsors of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a piece of legislation that uses a combination of pseudoscience and medically ambiguous research into fetal neural development as cover for a ban on abortion at 20 weeks. Tim Murphy is also reportedly a man who urged a woman to have an abortion when faced with an unintended pregnancy.
In January of this year, a woman with whom Murphy was having an extra-marital relationship sent a text to the congressman chastising him for an anti-abortion statement posted to his official Facebook page. The Pittsburg Post-Gazette obtained documents that included that text exchange:
“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,” Shannon Edwards, a forensic psychologist in Pittsburgh with whom the congressman admitted last month to having a relationship, wrote to Mr. Murphy on Jan. 25, in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare.
A text from Mr. Murphy’s cell phone number that same day in response says, “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.”
It isn’t exactly surprising that a person who has used their political power to deprive people of access to abortion would nevertheless expect to have continued access to the procedure should they need it. As abortion restrictions pass across the country, the procedure remains fully accessible to those who can afford it. Murphy apparently could.
What is surprising, however, is for the public to see these terms laid out in full daylight. Murphy isn’t working to ban abortion in his life, he’s working to ban it in yours.
You can read more at the Post-Gazette.