OH HELLO! Welcome to a beautiful and oddly satisfying bit of Republican hypocrisy, coming to you straight from Pennsylvania, land of the Amish, Yuengling, and totally fucking us all right up the ass in the 2017 election.
Congressman Tim Murphy, who represents Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, is a Republican with a very high rating from all the biggest anti-choice groups, like National Right to Life, LifePAC, and the Family Research Council. He's got a record of voting very strongly against reproductive rights, and is so super into fetuses that he was one of only five representatives from Pennsylvania to vote against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.
On Tuesday, he voted to pass the stupid-ass 20-week abortion ban in Congress. On Tuesday night, news broke that he asked the woman he was doing extramarital affairs with to get an abortion, but SHHHHHH let's talk more about his family values record first.
In 2012, the anti-choice site Life News ran an interview with Murphy, which was titled "Pro-Life Congressman Has the Backbone to Stand Up to Abortion." Here is an excerpt from that!
Congressman Tim Murphy maintains model rating from the National Right to Life Committee, having stood strong against the pro-abortion Obama healthcare law, against taxpayer funding of abortion, against embryonic stem cell research and federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Murphy has been outspoken in opposition to the recent Obama Administration attacks on conscience rights.
Back in January, Rep. Murphy issued a glowing endorsement of the March for Life, and also Donald Trump's very gross and stupid No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act:
“Over the past few days, Washington has taken steps toward protecting the sanctity of life and upholding the rights of the unborn. President Trump signed executive action to protect life and the House passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. This gives me great hope for the future generations of Americans.
“We must, once again, become a nation respectful of all life. We must encourage and prioritize adoption and offer compassion and prayer for mothers and fathers who struggle with the questions of life.
“This week, we celebrated the 44th Anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Today, along with hundreds of thousands of Americans across the nation, I am proud to join in the March for Life.”
All of this evidence would lead you to believe that Rep. Tim Murphy is a guy who really, really LOVES forced birth! Like, if he had to choose which thing he loved more, ice cream or forcing people to go through with potentially life-ruining pregnancies they don't want, it would not even be a contest.
Unless, of course, his OWN life might get ruined. In that case, as it turns out, Rep. Tim Murphy LOVES him a good abortion.
You see, Rep. Murphy, he of the Family Values, has copped to having an extramarital affair with 32-year-old forensic psychologist Shannon Edwards. Whoops!
But wait there's more! The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obtained documents including a text message exchange indicating the congressman asked Edwards to have an abortion when she had a pregnancy scare. Whoops, again!
Back in January, when Rep. Murphy was cheerleading for the March For Life, he posted the following screed to his Facebook wall:
"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."
This set Edwards off, as just a week before, he had asked her to get an abortion, so she texted him this:
"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."
Rep. Murphy's response, was, well, rather illuminating:
"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."
One would have to assume that as a forensic psychologist, Edwards was perfectly capable of using Google to figure out all the gross anti-choice things Murphy did say himself, as well as all the gross anti-choice things he voted for. I bet that felt really, really good.
Luckily, I can only imagine how I would feel were I to be having an affair with a Republican Congressman who was posting all about the March for Life a week after telling me to get an abortion. I imagine I would feel something like this:
Also included in the documents was a memo regarding Rep. Murphy's tendency to be abusive to his staff. So he's really an all-around charming guy.
Hopefully, this will all result in Rep. Murphy's career going down in Waiting To Exhale -style flames, but it sure is too bad that it didn't come out before that damned abortion ban vote.
In this day and age, you have to append "Just joking" like Trump did when he made the remark in San Juan of Puerto Rico blowing up the budget.
Wait, he didn't say, "Just joking?"
My first thought when I learned that Senator Rob Portman is in favor of DACA was, "Wait. One of his kids is Mexican?"