In a macabre attempt to push his platform, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suggested that Joan Rivers might still be alive had the clinic where her botched endoscopy was performed been held to the same stringent standards required under his controversial abortion law.

"It was interesting that, when Joan Rivers, and the procedure that she had done where she died, that was a clinic," said Perry, defending his law in front of an audience at the Texas Tribune Festival earlier today. "It's a curious thought that if they had that type of regulations in place, whether or not that individual would still be alive."

His highly restrictive bill, HB2, requiring clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, a standard that would shutter most of Texas' cash-strapped abortion clinics, was signed into law last year. Last month, a federal judge put the law on hold, giving the endangered clinics a stay– at least for the time being. Texas has since appealed the ruling.

Watch the video of the speech below; his Joan Rivers remarks begin at 1:00:40.

[ Photo Credit: AP Images]