 In the closing weeks of the Republican primary, Mannix mailed 60,000 of his supporters copies of an email that alleged that in 2000, Erickson, who has campaigned as an anti-abortion candidate since at least 2006, drove his pregnant girlfriend to a Portland abortion clinic and paid for her to have an abortion.The author of the email, a friend of the pregnant woman, originally sent the email in 2006 during Erickson's first congressional campaign, but had declined to give on-the-record interviews at that time.In May 2008, both women were interviewed by the "Portland Tribune" about the incident.