Texas Governor Rick Perry, who today was expected to announce another run for the presidency but instead just announced he won’t seek re-election, has recently been claiming every chance he gets abortion is the second-most performed surgery in the United States. It’s not, and Governor Perry has refused to respond to media inquiries asking him to back up that claim — because he can’t.
Perry recently came under fire for his misogynist comments about Texas state Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat who almost successfully filibustered Perry’s anti-abortion bill. The bill will get another vote this week, after Perry called the legislature back for a special one-month legislative session to pass his archaic legislation designed to prevent almost all Texas women from accessing their constitutional abortion rights.
As it stands right now, “close to 90 percent of Texas women live in a county without an abortion clinic.” That number would drop dramatically, with 37 of the 42 clinics currently operating in Texas being forced to close.
LOOK: Thousands Of Texans Rally To Support Women’s Abortion Rights And Wendy Davis
“Rick Perry made his case for legislation to step up standards for Texas abortion clinics partly by saying abortions are common,” Politifact reports:
“Abortion is the second-most conducted surgical procedure in this country,” Perry said on the July 1, 2013, edition of Bill Bennett’s “Morning in America” radio program. He made a similar statement the same morning on KFYO, 790 AM in Lubbock.
Perry’s office did not respond to our requests for backup information, while a physician who represents a national organization of specialists opposed to the Texas measure objected to describing abortion as a surgical procedure.
Dr. Barbara Levy, vice president of health policy for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and former medical director of the Women’s Health and Breast Center in Washington state, said by telephone that abortions are “minimally invasive” procedures, akin to colonoscopies, and do not involve surgical cutting unlike, say, hysterectomies. “We call these procedures, not surgeries,” Levy said. “I don’t even think it’s appropriate to talk about” abortion “as a surgical procedure.”
Once again, Rick Perry proves his ability to comprehend even the most basic, easily-researched information is beyond his grasp.
Politifact slams Perry, writing that “abortions do not appear to be more pervasive than numerous other medical procedures. Assuming 1.21 million abortions annually occur in the United States, and keeping in mind that 17 percent of these are induced by pills, the latest federal estimates for other surgical procedures indicate there are more than 2 million more eye surgeries involving the removal or replacement of the lens in the eye and there also are more surgical procedures involving the intestines or involving the extraction of wisdom teeth. Also, a procedure common among women who are giving birth — a cesarean section — has occurred more frequently than abortion.”
Then, Politifact concludes:
This claim not only lacks a factual basis, it’s ridiculous. Pants on Fire!
Perry, who just allowed the 500th Texas death row inmate to successfully complete their death sentence — more than any other state in the country — claims his anti-abortion bill will advance the “culture of life” in Texas.
Perry based his 2012 presidential run on his faith in God — holding a million-dollar Christian prayer rally and fast funded by the American Family Association, a certified anti-gay hate group. Perry’s performance on stage and in person was so abysmal pundits are still making jokes about not his performance, but about him.
If Governor Perry wants to outlaw abortion in his state, he will ultimately be overruled in courts of law and in courts of public opinion. If he wants to base another presidential run on his desire to control women’s bodies, the wrath of good Americans will slap him back to Texas he won’t have any place to hide.
Except Niggerhead.
Image by Rick Perry via Twitter