A billboard campaign charging lawmakers supported taxpayer-funded abortion when they voted for Obamacare is returning for the 2014 election just as Ohio renews its claim that it can censor the signs.
The campaign announced Tuesday by the Susan B. Anthony List targets Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, for her 2009 vote for the Affordable Care Act.
The billboard is expected to read “Kaptur Voted For Taxpayer-Funded Abortion.”
“Just like former Reps. Bart Stupak and Steve Driehaus, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur betrayed the unborn and her pro-life constituents by voting for Obamacare, which allows taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion on demand,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “This billboard campaign is part of our renewed effort to educate all Americans about the reality of abortion funding in Obamacare. Four years later, Rep. Kaptur’s constituents still deserve to know the truth.”
The campaign was allowed to move forward after Judge Timothy Black ruled unconstitutional an Ohio law that allowed a politically appointed panel of government bureaucrats to monitor campaign statements and determine whether or not they are true.
The SBA List noted the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office released a report in September identifying more than 1,000 Obamacare plans that cover abortion on demand and receive taxpayer subsidies.
In addition to providing federal tax subsidies that finance elective abortion coverage for millions of women, the ACA also expands state Medicaid program coverage of elective abortion for millions of women in dozens of states and uses federal funds to finance elective abortion coverage for members of Congress and their staff, the SBA List said.
Earlier this summer, the organization launched a similar billboard campaign in Louisiana to expose Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s support for taxpayer-funded abortion.
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Meanwhile, the organization said, it had been notified that the state has decided to appeal the judge’s ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an effort to maintain its censorship authority.
WND reported when Black issued his ruling Dannenfelser said her organization now was allowed “to freely communicate the truth with voters – that elected representatives who voted for the Affordable Care Act voted for taxpayer-funded abortion.”
“It is beyond dispute that, because Congress and the White House failed to include the Stupak amendment, Obamacare contains multiple abortion-funding provisions,” she said at that time. “This reality will continue to be a key part of our message to voters in the 2014 midterm elections and beyond.”
The organization went to court when it wanted to put up billboards in Ohio in 2010 exposing that former Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio, supported taxpayer-funded abortion by voting for Obamacare.
The billboards, however, were banned under the state’s “false claims” law that set up the government as judge and jury over whether any political statement was true or false.
The case already has been to the U.S. Supreme Court once, after an appellate court said the SBA List didn’t have standing to sue over the law, but the Supreme Court overturned the ruling.
“This summer, more than 20 groups from across the political spectrum submitted amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of SBA List. The ACLU, the Cato Institute, and even President Obama’s own solicitor general supported our fight for the right to criticize elected officials,” Dannenfelser noted.
Black had quoted from the SBA’s arguments: “[We are not] arguing for a right to lie. We’re arguing that we have a right not to have the truth of our political statements be judged by the government.”
WND reported the case originated in 2010 over the Driehaus campaign. He was one of the key votes for the controversial health insurance law. He had been holding out because he didn’t want to support abortion funding but eventually was convinced to support the bill.
He said he didn’t believe Obamacare allowed funding for abortion.
SBA List wanted to publicize his support for abortion funding but was stopped by the Ohio law. SBA List was also threatened with prosecution if it engaged in similar speech about Driehaus or other candidates in Ohio.
Dannenfelser noted Driehaus initially opposed Obamacare because he said it did not contain specific language preventing the funding of abortion.
“That never changed and to this very day, Americans are still fighting the expansion of taxpayer funding of abortion brought about by the overhaul,” Dannenfelser said.
However, Ohio bureaucrats, citing a law that “criminalizes ‘false’ political speech” and leaves it to bureaucrats to judge, ordered that the billboards could not go up.
Earlier, SBA List won its other battle with Driehaus. He had filed a defamation lawsuit alleging SBA List cost him his job and a “loss of livelihood,” but a district court held that SBA List’s statements about Driehaus’ vote on Obamacare were not defamatory.
WND later reported that SBA List had taken its billboards to several other states, targeting Landrieu, Kay Hagen of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
SBA List said it is highlighting through the billboards the Democrats’ support of “taxpayer funded abortion by voting for the Affordable Care Act.”
