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"Pro Life" Republican Congressional Candidate Pays for Abortion
Quote:
Oregon City woman details abortion, relationship with Mike Erickson
Now a "pro-life" congressional candidate, he gave her $300 and took her to the clinic in Northeast Portland, Tawnya says
Monday, June 23, 2008
JANIE HAR and STEVE MAYES
The Oregonian Staff
An Oregon City woman who dated congressional candidate Mike Erickson seven years ago said she asked him directly whether he wanted to have a baby. He shook his head no, she said, and paid for her abortion.
In interviews with The Oregonian, the woman said she met Erickson in September 2000, and she had the abortion in January 2001. They saw each other afterward, she said, even going on a trip to Mexico in March, before the relationship ended. She spoke on the condition that only her first name, Tawnya, be used.
Her story is backed up by medical and other records, and the accounts of two friends, one of whom was with her at the abortion. Their story conflicts directly with Erickson's version.
He agrees that he gave Tawnya $300 for medical help, and a ride to a doctor's office near Lloyd Center, but said he didn't know she was pregnant or planned to get an abortion. He said he doesn't think he saw her again after that day.
Erickson, a Lake Oswego businessman, is the Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District and is running on a "pro-life" platform. The charge that he provided money to Tawnya nearly derailed his campaign for the May 20 primary and could hobble his chances in the Nov. 4 general election against state Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby.
Tawnya, now 34, recalled sitting with Erickson in his new Mercedes that January, parked across from the abortion clinic.
"I was bawling so hard I couldn't speak. He looked so sad. He looked like he cared," she said.
"I asked him, 'Are you sure you don't want a baby?' " she said. "He shook his head. I opened the door, got out bawling and crossed the street and walked up to the clinic."
Erickson, 45, said he dated Tawnya "for a couple of months." He told The Oregonian he didn't remember many details about their relationship, including where they met or when they dated. He said she betrayed no emotion during the car ride.
"Did I pay for an abortion? Absolutely not," Erickson said.
"She was having some financial troubles," he said. "She asked for some money to go have a doctor's appointment -- not knowing what that was -- and whatever happened, happened, I guess. I didn't even know she had an abortion."
Erickson has campaigned on a strict anti-abortion platform that favors abstinence education and adoption over abortion. His opponent in last month's primary, Kevin Mannix, spotlighted the abortion story in a mass mailing to voters a week before the election. Mannix did so without Tawnya's knowledge or consent.
Tawnya reluctantly agreed to talk after repeated requests from The Oregonian. She said she was motivated in part by seeing Erickson tell his version to television reporters before the primary election.
"I'm just sick to my stomach watching him be interviewed on the news completely lying about everything," she said.
She requested her medical records from the Bours Health Center in Northeast Portland. The record shows an abortion was performed Jan. 30, 2001. She paid $300.
The record also shows she was accompanied by Kristi Oetken, identified on the form as her best friend.
"Cried the entire time"
Tawnya was 26 years old when she met Erickson, then 37.
She was a single mom of a 3-year-old girl, earning $13.77 an hour at a Milwaukie warehouse and living in a small apartment. She let her ex-boyfriend move in to help care for their daughter.
Erickson prospered as president of AFMS, a fast-growing business that advises companies on ways to lower their shipping expenses.
They met at Mount Angel's Oktoberfest in September 2000, according to Tawnya and her friend Joy Johanson, who was there. Erickson handed her his business card. His title -- president -- impressed her. She called him.
They dated, Tawnya said, and spent time on his houseboat at Portland's Macadam Bay Club, cooking meals and playing hide-and-seek with her daughter.
She couldn't recall exactly when she learned she was pregnant, or when she told Erickson. But she did tell him, she said.
"I just remember him being fairly solemn about it. He didn't tell me I had to get an abortion. He didn't force me," Tawnya said.
But he also wasn't going to marry her, she said, and she didn't want to raise another child on her own.
She scheduled the appointment and said she asked Erickson to take her there. He stopped at an ATM to withdraw $300 to give her. During the drive, he told her that because of work he couldn't stay, she said.
Oetken held her hand during the procedure and drove her home afterward.
"She cried the entire time," said Oetken, 36, who is a recruiter for a Portland-area high-tech company. "I was just being a friend but lecturing her at the same time, 'You need to be rid of this guy, and I hope this is the last straw.' "
Oetken said she called Erickson later that day and left him a scathing voice mail.
Johanson, who worked with Tawnya at the time but hasn't stayed in touch, said she never spoke to Erickson about the abortion. But Johanson was relieved when Tawnya told her that Erickson would take her to the clinic and pay for the procedure.
"He took her and dropped her off, so she started freaking out," Johanson said. "It enraged Kristi that he just ditched her like that."
"It made me sick"
The abortion first cropped up two years ago when Erickson ran against Democrat Darlene Hooley.
Tawnya, a registered Republican, said she received a campaign flier with a photo of Erickson next to a baby, touting his endorsement by the anti-abortion group Oregon Right to Life.
The mailer made him out to be "some sort of safe haven for babies, and honestly, it made me sick," she said.
She called Oetken, who sent an e-mail to a handful of news outlets calling Erickson a hypocrite and offering to tell their story. The e-mail was copied to Erickson and Hooley.
Erickson denied the allegation in a statement to reporters who inquired about Oetken's e-mail.
No news stories appeared. Tawnya said she wasn't ready to talk about her abortion then.
Erickson's account
Erickson gives a far different account of events
He said he thinks that a week or two before the appointment, Tawnya called asking for help with money to see a doctor. A day or two before the appointment, he said, she called to say she had car troubles and needed a ride.
He said he didn't ask her why she needed to see a doctor, saying he didn't want to pry.
"I knew her pretty well but not like -- it wasn't my girlfriend -- but it was somebody that I had a relationship with," Erickson said.
Erickson didn't wait around. "She said her friend was picking her up and they were going to do something at the mall, or something like that."
Erickson said that he does not remember seeing Tawnya again after she left his car.
"I think we talked on the phone once or twice (afterward), and none of this ever came up. (We) never dated again," Erickson said.
The relationship ended, he said, when he learned she was sharing her apartment with her ex-boyfriend.
Photos from a trip
But Tawnya and Johanson said Erickson accompanied them on a Mexican getaway in March 2001, a month after the abortion. She provided documentation and photos of the trip.
Erickson suggested they take a trip as a way to mend their relationship, Tawnya said. They were accompanied by Johanson and three of Erickson's male friends.
Erickson said he believes the Mexico trip took place before the medical appointment, although he couldn't provide a date.
"She flew down there with her girlfriend. I was there with three other friends. It happened to be we were down there around the same time. That's true," he said. "I forget if we were on the same plane or not, or different flights."
Johanson said she went at Erickson's invitation and that he subsidized some of their expenses. She and Tawnya flew to Mexico on the same flight as Erickson.
The women shared one room. The men were in another, she said.
Johanson said Erickson spent much of the trip with his friends, although she recalled Erickson and Tawnya spent at least one night together.
Johanson said it was clear to her the romance between Tawnya and Erickson was done.
"They were over by this trip. It wasn't like they were a couple."
On that point, Erickson agrees. "It wasn't like we were on a boyfriend-girlfriend trip," Erickson said. "We were friends, mostly."
Erickson said he's almost certain he did not spend an intimate evening with Tawnya in Mexico.
"I don't think I did," he said. "I don't believe I did."
What's the point of posting this? To slam Erickson for being hypocritical, and I'll add a complete jerk; or is it to insinuate that (all) Pro-Life Republicans are hypocrites; or just all politicians are liars?
I don't get the significance of posting about some jackazz in Oregon who is running for Congressman, unless the intent is to make a broader statement.
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
This is the politics and religion forum, right? This guy is running for Congress. That makes it political, yeah?
Is this any different than Larry Craig getting caught in the St Paul airport stall? Not hardly, I think it's fair game to point out the hypocrisies in certain public officials lifestyles in this forum.
This is the politics and religion forum, right? This guy is running for Congress. That makes it political, yeah?
Is this any different than Larry Craig getting caught in the St Paul airport stall? Not hardly, I think it's fair game to point out the hypocrisies in certain public officials lifestyles in this forum.
What are you probing for?
Just seems like a small fish in a big pond.
I am not confronting you or your right to post it. I just don't get the significance of a post about this guy, therefore I asked.
The difference between Erickson and Craig (for example) is that Craig already is a US Senator, one of only 100 in the U.S.; while Erickson is a wanna be, whom is likely to be a never was.
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
In political terms, he played this like a dunce. Not only is he hypocritical, he's a liar. He should just admit he paid for the abortion, pretend he later had some sort of Road to Damascus/Come to Jesus moment, and all would have been forgiven.
And I realize I'm suggesting that he pretend he had a religious conversion, but I take it for granted people running for political office lie all the time, and I certainly wouldn't expect anything different from somebody stupid and unprincipled enough to admit giving a woman he's dating $300 for a doctor's visit but claiming to have no idea what it was for.
But there does seem to be rather more than usual issues with conservative republicans getting caught doing something they publicly de3nounce for religious reasons
I just don't get the significance of a post about this guy, therefore I asked.
More than anything, this demonstrates the magnificance of the significance that choice represents for all people who are faced with this sort of family planning crisis, whether they publicly support and admit it.
I certainly wouldn't expect anything different from somebody stupid and unprincipled enough to admit giving a woman he's dating $300 for a doctor's visit but claiming to have no idea what it was for.
A slight twist of the "But I didn't inhale" defense.
But there does seem to be rather more than usual issues with conservative republicans getting caught doing something they publicly de3nounce for religious reasons
Just to make a quick analogy, sort of like liberal Dems alarmed over global warming, while driving SUV's or flying private jets, etc...
You see, nidan, it's not just conservative republican politicians that are hypocritical, but all politicians.
On a more serious note, as a person of faith I can attest that the desire for 'sinlessness' is more easily achieved than being sinless. I think this is the same dilema faced by those politicians claiming Christianity. The desire to live as a Christian ought to, is more easily obtained than doing so.
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Last edited by CardLogic; June 24th, 2008 at 12:02 PM.
meh - that's nothing.
I've paid for an abortion that was not even mine because my lady friend was not prepared to be the single mother of 2 children - one future stripper is enough.
Think of the 1000's of $ in saved WIC and foodstamps.
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"Seachicken - it's what's for dinner" - me (until the 'Hawks sweep the Cards)
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More than anything, this demonstrates the magnificance of the significance that choice represents for all people who are faced with this sort of family planning crisis, whether they publicly support and admit it.
An astute observation.
As with all persons, it is easier for one to point out the correct path than to actually take it.
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
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