Ohio voters this November won't be seeing a controversial ad campaign
that accuses Ohio Representative Steve Driehaus of betraying his
pro-life convictions to pass health care reform.
Instead, they may be watching a legal battle over the contents of the
law, as the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List defends its claim that the
new law funds abortion through insurance premiums and community health
centers.
Representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
have reached the same conclusion.
But SBA List President Marjorie
Dannenfelser could face fines or jail time for attempting to run
billboards saying Representative Driehaus “voted FOR taxpayer-funded
abortion.”
Driehaus' complaint to the Ohio Elections Commission stopped the ads
from running, when the commission chose to investigate SBA List's
billboard as an illegal “false statement.”
On October 25, a federal judge dismissed SBA List's counter-suit
claiming that the Ohio statute was choking off constitutionally
protected speech.
Speaking to CNA on October 26, Dannenfelser explained
that the disputed Ohio billboards simply repeated the findings of the
USCCB.
“The Catholic Church's position,” she said, “is also our position.
The bill that all these members of Congress voted for ... does not have a
prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion.”
Nor, she said, does a
presidential executive order address the main concerns about abortion
funding.
Dannenfelser said Driehaus and other Democrats had previously
insisted on these very same flaws being corrected in any comprehensive
health care bill.
“This was not only the position of the entire pro-life
movement, but it was the position of Congressman Driehaus himself,”
Dannenfelser argued.
Driehaus, she explained, had criticized earlier versions of health
care reform, objecting strongly to abortion funding mechanisms that were
not fixed in the final version.
“He tried to get a resolution passed
before the bill went through, that would have fixed the funding
mechanism problem,” the president of SBA List recalled.
“But that was
rejected by the leadership in the house.”
Eventually, she asserted, political pressure caused Driehaus and
other pro-life Democrats to accept an executive order from President
Obama, in place of restrictions in the bill. While the White House said
the executive order would “ensure that Federal funds are not used” for
elective abortion, the USCCB's lawyers concluded that the order would
prevent abortion funding in some cases, but allow it in others.
Dannenfelser also drew attention to the comments of Cardinal Francis
George.
The cardinal initially praised the Senate's efforts toward
health care reform, but wrote in March that the final version of the
bill “expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in
the provision of abortion procedures.”
Why, Dannenfelser wondered, was
no one accusing Cardinal George of “lying,” or attempting to sue him –or
the USCCB as a whole-- for defamation?
Driehaus has lost the financial backing of his own party, and is not
favored to win the election on November 2.
But with the Ohio Elections
commission scheduling its hearing only four days before voting, it
appears he succeeded in silencing his former allies.
SIC: CNA/INT'L