'No one forces anyone to have sex,' NC congressman Greg Murphy's Twitter account says after Roe decision

The removals happened in the days following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down reproductive protections for women that had been in place for nearly 50 years. A tweet that took aim at President Joe Biden, saying the country is so divided that “it may never recover,” was also deleted, according to the database.

Murphy’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the posts or about whether the congressman thinks abortion should be permitted when a woman is a victim of rape or incest.

The tweets were posted and deleted on Sunday, two days after the high court voted to overturn the decision in the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case.

The North Carolina Republican Party declined to comment on the post about forced sex.

In 2018, the federal government reported a significant increase over the previous year, with 1 in 370 people in the age group reportedly assaulted or raped. In 2019, the victimization rate dropped significantly, with 1 in 588 people being victims. The data includes those who faced threats, attempts or completed occurrences of rape or sexual assault.

Murphy has represented coastal North Carolina in Congress since 2019. Before that, he served in the state House of Representatives and as chief of staff of Vidant Medical Center, a trauma center in eastern North Carolina. His congressional website describes him as “the only actively practicing physician in Congress seeing patients a few days a month still.”

Following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe and Casey v. Planned Parenthood on Friday, Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore called for the implementation of a state law that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The issue was addressed last year when a federal appeals court ruled the state’s ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy was unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court’s ruling could lead to the implementation of the abortion restriction.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they’d support laws restricting abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, while 31% were opposed. Asked how state lawmakers should address the issue, 34% of respondents favored more restrictions, while 20% wanted fewer restrictions. Thirty-five percent preferred to leave laws as they are.