Catholic groups criticize health-vote billboards

PITTSBURGH - Two national Catholic groups and some clergy in northwestern Pennsylvania are criticizing billboards stating that Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper's vote for federal health-care legislation also was a vote in support of federal funding of abortion.

Similar billboards, also paid for by the Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion political action committee, are at the center of litigation involving U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D., Ohio), who got the Ohio Elections Commission to find probable cause that the claim was false. The ruling stopped the group from posting the ads.

Chris Korzen, executive director of one of the groups, Catholics United, said Wednesday that the billboards were dishonest attempts to smear antiabortion lawmakers. He said Dahlkemper and others did not violate their principles by voting for the health-care legislation.

"We believe her vote was actually a very pro-life vote for the health-care bill," he said, adding that "every independent analysis of the health-care bill confirms it didn't expand" abortion funding. Members of other Catholic groups disagree. - AP