Rick Perry's demagoguery . . . exploiting Joan Rivers' tragic death.

If anybody still cared about him as a presidential candidate, it might be considered another "Oops" moment for Gov. Rick Perry.   But it seems to be just settling into the mire of tortured moments that we've come to expect from him.

Perry seized upon the circumstances of Joan Rivers' death in a non-hospital surgical center to push his anti-abortion agenda.  Having gone in ostensibly to have an endoscopy (putting a tube down the esophagus) to see if acid reflux might be the cause of her hoarseness, some complication occurred and she died.

Apparently her doctor, who was medical head of the facility, had also agreed to let Rivers' throat specialist come in to take a look at her vocal cords during the same procedure.  That's actually a good idea -- checking into two possible causes of hoarseness at the same time.

The details of what happened have still not been released, but apparently somewhere during that examination (was a vocal cord biopsy performed?), Ms. Rivers either went into cardiac arrest or perhaps laryngospasm.

At least she was not getting enough oxygen circulating, and apparently suffered brain damage.  Despite efforts to revive her, she never regained consciousness and died a few days later after being on life support.

Where does Ric Perry figure in all this?   In his attempt to halt abortions in Texas, he signed a law that requires abortion facilities to meet hospital-level operating room standards.   The presumption here is that the New York clinic where Joan Rivers was a patient did not have such standards, although those are not spelled out in the information we have.

Perry was trying to point out that here is an example of what can happen when you have patients being treated in outpatient facilities.   It's not as safe as a hospital.   Abortions shouldn't be performed in them either.    Here is why he is wrong.

First, an abortion does not involve deep anesthesia;  it is a very safe procedure.   The same is true for endoscopy.   There is no need for hospital type operating room facilities.

Second, absent more details about what actually happened, we don't know what equipment -- if any -- was lacking that would have made a difference.   There was an anesthesiologist present.  Outpatient facilities are equipped with what is needed for this kind of procedure. 

We do not know that Joan Rivers would have survived the same procedure -- and whatever went on in her body -- any better in a hospital.   Until some medical authority with knowledge of what happened says so, then I can see no reason to blame the facility for being the problem.

Was it malpractice on the part of either of the doctors?   Or was it simply one of those complications that are rare -- but nevertheless occur under the best of circumstances and with the best of care.   People also die from surgical complications in the best equipped hospitals in the world.   But, when they occur in a celebrity -- or to us -- we want to blame someone and try to fix the problem so it doesn't happen to someone else.

There is nothing to indicate that Rick Perry's linking of the two is appropriate.  For a crude politician like him to exploit this human tragedy to make his false case for a draconian law is despicable.   

Let Gov. Perry answer this question:   What do you say to the fact that, for every woman who dies having a safe, legal abortion in a clinic like this, there would be dozens or maybe hundreds who will die from illegally performed abortions in truly horrible backrooms and alleyways -- if you have your way and close down all these safe clinics?

Ralph