Rick Perry Cites Joan Rivers' Death as Reason to Close Texas Abortion Clinics

At the Texas Tribune Festival Sunday, Republican Texas Governor, Rick Perry used comedian Joan Rivers’ recent death as an example of why he supports HB2, a draconian anti-abortion law that would result in the closing of seven of the 19 remaining abortion clinics in Texas.

“It was interesting that Joan Rivers and the procedure that she had done, where she died, that was a clinic,” Perry mused before the crowd in his trademark eloquence. “It’s a curious thought, that if they had that type of regulations in place, whether or not that individual would be alive.”

Nevermind that Rivers, 81, was being treated for a throat issue at Yorkville Endoscopy in Manhattan, a clinic that treats gastrointestinal illness.

Perhaps Perry–currently under grand jury indictment on two abuse of power felony counts–thinks pregnancy is a GI disorder. Or maybe he just doesn’t give a damn? Because if he did, he might be concerned about the fact that women’s lives are at stake as back alley abortions have seen a resurgence.

Currently, HB2 outlaws abortions after 20 weeks, limits the administering of non-invasive, non-surgical medication abortions and requires abortion-performing doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. A provision which numerous medical professionals have gone on the record to claim is wholly unnecessary.

“These admitting privileges were not designed to make women safer,” said Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. “Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, oppose them.”

These difficult to contend with admitting privileges have however, proven to be a sneaky and effective way to force abortion clinics to close without ever having to confront the law of the land: Roe V. Wade.

U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thomson in Alabama, recently struck down a similar law, saying it would place an “undue burden” on clinics. The judge proclaimed that any action which would serve to so fully compromise the access to any legal, established right, must come from a place of necessity and authenticity. He found the law did neither.

Unfortunately Texas women had no such luck. The upheld provisions slashed the state’s 41 abortion clinics by more than half. Reducing Texas’ 5 million women of reproductive age to 19 clinics, prompting some to resort to the type of illegal and dangerous procedures not seen since before Roe V. Wade.

Perry and his ilk, will apparently not be satisfied until women have no access to reproductive health care. Or at least not that which is not expressly approved by anti-choice Republican fundamentalists. You know? The small-government-except-when-it-comes-to-vaginas crowd?

In late August, U.S. District Judge Lee Yaekel in Austin, blocked a major provision of the extreme anti-abortion legislation. He, seemingly of a similar mindset as Thomson, ruled that the bill was less about ensuring patient safety and more about making access to abortion as difficult as possible.

Had Judge Yaekel decided differently, only seven licensed abortion clinics would have remained in the entire state of Texas.

Perry name-dropped the late Rivers as part of his rhetorical appeal to have that ruling reversed by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.

Jan Soifer, an Austin attorney representing several abortion providers in the lawsuit, questioned how much Perry actually knew about the circumstances of Rivers’ death at Yorkville Endoscopy.

“I do know that the evidence we produced at trial proved that abortions are among the safest procedures,” she said. “And neither ASC’s or admitting privileges make them any safer.”

Nicole Girard is a political writer with a passion for civil rights and the truth. Follow her on facebook or twitter.

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Rick Perry Cites Joan Rivers’ Death as Reason to Close Texas Abortion Clinics