No one is arguing that women don't have a right to contraception. The point is that the government should not be allowed to force anyone to pay for a woman's decision to use contraception. If a woman wants to use contraception, she is free to do so, and if her employer's health insurance plan doesn't cover it, she'll just have to find a way to pay for it on her own.
Why would an employer object to being forced to give health insurance to employees that covers contraception? Well, there are many organizations in this country that are Christian-based, and contraception violates their religious beliefs. The government should not be allowed to force people to violate their religious beliefs any more than they should be allowed to force religion itself on anyone.
A private company, like a Christian-based school, is property - it's an asset owned by someone. People own houses, people own cars, and sometimes people own companies. And some of these people are Christian and hold certain beliefs, and they conduct their business in accord with those beliefs.
When someone owns something, they ought to be free to use it as they see fit, as long as they aren't infringing on the rights of others. If a private company wants to offer health insurance to its employees, so be it. If it doesn't want to offer it, that should be fine too. If you don't want to work for a company that doesn't provide health insurance, then look for employment elsewhere. Some employers do choose to offer health insurance to their employees, in which case they evaluate the myriad of insurance plans in the marketplace and choose one that they feel is cost-effective, sufficient, will help lure good job candidates, or covers health issues they deem necessary enough to cover. Or maybe they don't want to offer health insurance at all. Any of these choices should be permissible for owners of private entities. Christian-based schools often do offer health insurance to their employees, but they choose plans that don't cover things like abortions and contraception, because those things violate their religious beliefs. It doesn't mean female employees of Christian-based schools aren't allowed to get abortions or use contraception - it just means their employer won't pay for it.
When the government starts forcing people to do things against their will, or in violation of their religious beliefs, it is a violation of the tenets of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It violates the Constitution, and it violates the idea that people are free to run their lives and use their own money and property as they see fit.
But to hear the liberals tell it, conservatives are trying to prohibit contraception altogether. That's not the objection at all. But facts aren't really important to the liberals if those facts get in the way of a good nanny-state agenda.
The bottom line is that we all have to work for a living, and there are lots of companies out there with job positions. People should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each job, and then choose one that has the most advantages. If contraception is that important to a woman, and she is dead-set against paying for it herself, then she will just have to narrow her job prospects to those employers which offer health insurance that covers contraception. But I fail to see why the government should be allowed to force companies to offer things they don't want to offer. No one is forcing people to work for one company or another, and no one should force companies to offer any particular set of benefits. Both employers and employees should be free to contract with each other and agree on what wages and benefits will be provided. A woman is always free to walk away from a job opportunity if she doesn't like the health insurance benefits of that job. The government should stay out of it completely.
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