The phrase "abstained from using" is correct and usable in written English.
It is especially useful when describing someone who actively chooses not to do something. Example: Jane had the opportunity to take advantage of her co-worker's mistake, but instead abstained from using it to her own benefit.
From sundown on Friday, March 7th, until sundown on Saturday, March 8th, participants abstained from using technology, unplugging themselves from their phones and tablets, computers and televisions.
He added that he was drawn to the guitar's resonance and its "clear, ringing sound," and that he therefore abstained from using pedals or effects.
During his first stint as governor — he served from 1975 to 1983 — he abstained from using the governor's limousine, opting to drive himself to work in his personal car.
In doing this, we have abstained from using non-Nash equilibrium notions and we obtain a much more precise prediction on the market structure arising once the MCL is established.
Inter-statal warfare during the period of the jus publicum Europaeum, according to Schmitt, distinguished carefully between combatants and civilians and abstained from using methods of warfare that might endanger the lives or the property of civilians (NE 142 43, 165 8).
We used exact matching and abstained from using any more sophisticated methods for recognizing the ontologies' categories in text [19], [20] to evaluate our method.
(Donovan, too, largely abstained from alcohol; that was not where the reputation for wildness came from).
They observed chastity for several days and abstained from certain foods.
The ancient Israelites, for example, abstained from sexual intercourse before going into battle.
Camus was a moralist who unhesitatingly distinguished good from evil but abstained from condemning human frailty.
But the Chinese abstained from a subsequent resolution that essentially approved military support for the Libyan rebels.
