On Wednesday, Rep. Tim Murphy (R- Pennsylvania) announced that he will not seek re-election after the Pittsburg Post-Gazette published compromising text messages between him and the woman that he admitted having an affair with.
The Post-Gazette reported the text-messages were sent in January and detailed the congressman's mistress, Shannon Edwards, taking Murphy to task for promoting pro-life messages while at the same time asking her to abort their unborn love-child.
The text message from Edwards read:
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.
Murphy, who is serving his eighth Congressional term in Pennsylvania's 18th District, is part of the House Pro-Life Caucus and voted in favor of the recently-passed Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which criminalizes abortions at 20 weeks or more.
Making matters even more tragic, Murphy has been championed by pro-life groups including the Family Research Council, LifePAC, and Right to Life for his staunch defense of life for the unborn and his commitment to family values.
While Murphy and those affected by his admitted mistakes will certainly be caught up in this fiasco for the indefinite future, it appears as though some of his colleagues are prepared to distance themselves from him and continue on with business as usual.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers was quoted saying, "While I am extremely disappointed in the circumstances surrounding Congressman Murphy's retirement, I remain confident that PA-18 will remain under Republican control next year... I look forward to working with the eventual Republican nominee to ensure the district's conservative values are represented in Congress."