This article originally appeared on TheHill.com on November 16, 2010.
Driehaus withdraws complaint over anti-abortion election billboards
By: Julian Pecquet
Defeated Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) has withdrawn his complaint against the anti-abortion rights group Susan B. Anthony List for claiming that he “voted for taxpayer-funded abortion.”
Driehaus had complained about SBA billboard ads to the Ohio Elections Commission under a state law banning false statements. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 2 and the commission must now officially accept Driehaus’s request in order for the complaint to be officially dismissed.
Susan B. Anthony applauded the decision Tuesday but vowed to continue its fight to overturn the state law.
“The SBA List remains gravely concerned that the statute allowing Rep. Driehaus to launch his complaint — and which cost the SBA List tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees — remains law and can be used to silence free speech again,” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.
SBA had asked a federal court to review the law’s constitutionality but Judge Timothy Black of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio turned the group down. SBA says it plans to appeal that decision, especially in light of the fact that Black was director of Planned Parenthood of Cincinnati from 1986 to 1989.
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