Just when you thought it was safe to be a woman in Oklahoma again … it isn’t.

The party that allegedly stands for smaller, less intrusive government – that would be Republican, in case you’ve not been keeping up – is represented in Congress by these five members of the House: Frank Lucas, Tom Cole, Markwayne Mullin, Kevin Hern and Stephanie Bice.

All of them, including female Stephanie Bice, voted against the right of women to access contraceptives.

That’s right. These American Taliban believe that somehow returning our American society to the era of pre-World War II makes sense. Only 12 members of the Party of Lincoln – out of the total membership in the House of 210 – sided with all Democrats to let freedom ring by taking a pill! Tastes good like a contraceptive pill should.

Now, if you had just arrived in this world from Outer Space and I told you of this, I’m pretty sure you would think I’m nuts, that such an action makes no sense, is counterproductive to the good health and safety of women and is useful in family planning.

And I would say to my new Little Green Friend from “out there” that I’m just reporting what “they did,” not what I would do.

However, having watched many female Republican members of our own Oklahoma Legislature gleefully give away a number of their personal rights through restrictive and punitive laws proposed and passed by them and their male counterparts, I might come around to the idea of a few days in the stocks until they come to their senses … if they have any.

But lashing or stoning? Probably steps too far at least for now and, anyway, such actions would interfere with the real work us guys expect of Okie women today – cooking, sewing, making their own clothes, wiping baby butts, fetching us beers during halftime of the games, cleaning up after our poker games but most of all, telling us how much they love us in the morning as we head off to the real world of real work by us real men.

It’s sure tough these days being the man of the house.