Who Is Tim Murphy? Republican Congressman From Pennsylvania Resigns Amid Abortion Scandal

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania) will resign from Congress before the end of the month amid reports that he persuaded a woman, who he was having an extramarital affair with, to undergo an abortion.

Murphy announced Wednesday that he would retire at the end of his term, next year; however, House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement Thursday that Murphy would retire on Oct. 21, Business Insider reported.

“This afternoon I received a letter of resignation from Congressman Tim Murphy, effective October 21. It was Dr. Murphy's decision to move on to the next chapter of his life, and I support it. We thank him for his many years of tireless work on mental health issues here in Congress and his service to the country as a naval reserve officer.”

The U.S. congressman and a staunch pro-life advocate, Murphy’s extramarital affair first came to light when Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obtained a copy of the text message by Shannon Edwards. Murphy admitted to having an extramarital relationship with Edwards.

In the text message, sent on Jan. 25 when the duo thought Edwards was expecting a child, Edwards called out Murphy on the pro-life stance he posted on his Facebook while he urged her to terminate her pregnancy. “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, a forensic psychologist, wrote, according to reports.

Murphy’s response sent the same day read, “I get what you say about my March for Life messages. I’ve never written them. The staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write anymore. I will,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Murphy is currently serving his eighth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was first elected in November 2002 and has since then been an active contributor for bringing in meaningful reform in the U.S. healthcare system.

According to his website, as the chairman of Oversight & Investigations Committee (O&I), he also led an investigation into America’s broken mental health. The multi-year investigation then led to crisis mental health reform legislation, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which was signed into law in December 2016 as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill was considered the most significant attempt at mental health reform in decades.

Apart from that, Murphy has also led various examinations including the General Motors airbag and key system failures, the botched Affordable Care Act website rollout, the Volkswagen emissions system data manipulation, and the multi-year investigation into the Solyndra swindle which left taxpayers liable for $535 million in unpaid federal loan guarantees.

Murphy’s affair first came into public knowledge when Edwards' husband, Jesse Sally, wanted to depose him in his divorce proceedings. Though Edwards maintained her marriage was broken even before the affair, Sally alleged that Murphy and Edwards’ affair was the cause for his marriage to end. The revelations were first published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Sept. 6.

However, troubles for Murphy did not end there as Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in the same report, released a memorandum dated June 8, 2017, from his chief of staff complaining the congressman repeatedly harassed the staff and portrayed "hostile, erratic, unstable, angry, aggressive and abusive behavior," which led to an "inability to hire and retain competent staff, abysmal office morale." The memo also accused Murphy of dangerous distracted driving during a heavy thunderstorm with staff members in his car.