Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) has decided not to finish out his term in Congress, the latest fallout from the exposure of his extramarital affair — in which the ostensibly pro-life congressman asked his mistress to have an abortion.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), in an unusual statement, announced that Murphy is on his way out in two weeks.
“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,” Ryan said.
The news comes one day after Murphy announced he wouldn’t run for another term — and just days after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the news that Murphy had urged his mistress to have an abortion during a false pregnancy scare.
Murphy had an ardently anti-abortion record in Congress. He’d also been a fairly interesting congressman, crafting and helping push through major bipartisan mental health legislation in recent years.
Murphy’s western Pennsylvania district is fairly solidly Republican — President Trump won it by 58 percent to 39 percent — and it’d be a major but not impossible reach for Democrats to compete for it.