Rick Perry: Texas Abortion Laws Might Have Saved Joan Rivers

Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked at this weekend’s Tribune Fest about abortion bill HB2, which required the state’s clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The bill caused half of Texas’ abortion clinics to shut down, which many critics believe was exactly the point.

Perry cited the death of comedian Joan Rivers, which occurred following complications during a minor throat procedure, as evidence for the importance of clinic safety.

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“Clearly, the will of the Texas Legislature — which I agree with — that it is a state’s right to put particular types of considerations into place, to put rules and regulations into place, to make a clinic be as safe as a hospital,” Perry said. “It was interesting that, when Joan Rivers, and the procedure that she had done where she died — that was a clinic. It’s a curious thought that if they had had that type of regulations in place, whether or not that individual would be still alive.”

Like HB2, River’s death is already the subject of legal action, but the clinic at which the initial procedure was performed is in fact an ambulatory surgery center.

Watch the clip below, via Texas Tribune:

[h/t Texas Tribune]

[Image via screengrab]

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