Oregonian gets details on Erickson abortion

In what could be the ultimate blow in the race to replace retiring Rep. Darlene Hooley, a front page story in today's Oregonian obtains hard details from the woman who alleges Lake Oswego businessman and congressional candidate Mike Erickson paid for her to abort their child back in January of 2001.

Erickson's former girlfriend, Tawnya, provided the paper with medical records of her abortion and a bill showing the procedure cost exactly $300, the amount she claims Erickson retrieved from an ATM machine right before dropping her off at the abortion clinic in Portland. She also claims he took her on a trip to Mexico after the procedure and provided pictures of the trip as proof. Erickson claims the trip took place before taking her to a doctor's appointment and that it just "happened to be we were down there around the same time."

This is yet another blow to Erickson in his second run for the fifth congressional seat. These new details could ultimately cripple any chance Erickson or the Republican party had in his general election bid against Democrat state Sen. Kurt Schrader from Canby. Erickson's recollection of events appears hazy at best. He sticks with his questionable story that Tawnya was a woman, not his girlfriend, he had some sort of "relationship" with. He claims she merely needed some cash to see a doctor and a ride due to car troubles. Whereas, Tawnya establishes concrete evidence of her own memory.

The only remaining question now is how much Erickson will spend to repair this devastating damage.