State Representative Doug Cox (R) scolded Oklahoma Republicans for their stance on reproductive rights in an op-ed published in The Oklahoman on Wednesday.
Cox, a practicing physician, writes that his state’s proposed legislation curtailing contraception and abortion is “great for the Republican family that lives in a gingerbread house with a two-car garage, two planned kids and a dog,” but not so great “in the real world.”
Cox notes that limiting access to contraception is “a sure way to increase legal and back-alley abortions.” His fellow GOP legislators are a hard sell, though: they’ve been hard at work defunding Planned Parenthood after last week’s tornado and introducing legislation that would allow employers to deny workers birth control for any reason. Cox spoke out against both measures.
“What happened to the Republican Party that I joined?” Cox asks himself. “What happened to the Republican Party that felt government should not overregulate people until (as we say in Oklahoma) ‘you have walked a mile in their moccasins’?”