I checked Gildersleeve, and found the compound verbs that take dat. were generally with
ad-, ante-, con-, in-, inter-, ob-, post-, prae-, sub-, super- (sec. 347,)
but it was written that occasionally compound transitive verbs with
de-, ex-, ab-
were found with dat. (and the dat. could be translated "from") (sec. 347. Remark 5.).
In the example sentence the dat. were persons, not things, as you say,
Grochojad.
Adrianus, this question was again raised when I was reading the booklet of a medieval song CD.
This.
desponsationem viri sibi abstraxit
she kept away the engagement with any man from herselfI checked abstraho in L&S but I couldn't find a clear statement and sample sentence of the usage with dat..