It has been an open question for a little while now as to whether Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is a power-drunk authoritarian or just not terribly bright.

This week, I think she gave us an answer.

Appearing Thursday on former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod’s podcast, the governor explained that abortion services were still available in Michigan because those types of procedures are “life-sustaining.”

At this point, I am not fully convinced Whitmer even knows what the word “abortion” means.

“As we speak,” Axelrod said, “in Texas and a couple of other states, I think Ohio may be another, the state has asked to suspend abortion services as part of this COVID-19 protocol.”

He added: “This is probably going to go to the Supreme Court. What is your reaction to that? You’re a governor, you have to make these decisions as well. There are other procedures that have been suspended.”

Whitmer, who has spent an exorbitant amount of time recently participating in exceptionally friendly media interviews (and I mean a lot of time), replied proudly that the great state of Michigan would not slow its abortions for anything, not even a viral pandemic that has already killed more than 2,000 people in her state.

“You know, we stopped elective surgeries here in Michigan, and some people have tried to say that that type of a procedure is considered the same, and that’s ridiculous,” the governor said. “You know, a woman’s healthcare, her whole future, her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is a fundamental to her life.”

Whitmer added, “It is life-sustaining, and it’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of.”

That is an interesting choice of words, “life-sustaining.”

“Life-sustaining” for whom, exactly? Because I can assure you that there is at least one person involved in the abortion equation for whom such procedures are far from “life-sustaining.”

Does Whitmer think about her words before they come out of her head? It sure does not seem that way. It seems more likely that she simply has grown accustomed to rattling off prememorized talking points with no thought given to how they sound. This approach even makes a certain amount of twisted sense. It is not as if anyone in the national press is going to challenge her on any of it. After all, she is the media darling of the moment.

Now, as to the question that opened this article – is Whitmer a malevolent despot or merely a dimwit – the answer, based on her coronavirus orders and her subsequent defenses of those orders, is: Yes.