the fact of the matter is that it shouldn't be forced to provide anything regardless of religious freedom or not.
You're right, man. Businesses shouldn't be forced to protect their workers from open, uncovered rotating blades or caustic fumes, either. That's a violation of property rights. Nor should the be forced to clean smoke from their smokestacks. It's their property for the 10 seconds before it floats into the public! They should have a right to spew tons of noxious sulfur fumes into their air and tiny section of streams! I can't be expected to be responsible for what the wind does, pfft. And what if I don't feel like maintaining my roof to make sure it doesn't fall down on my workers out of nowhere? I shouldn't have to on my own property. Nor should I have to bother with fire extinguishers, and I should be able to insulate my walls with fluffy gasoline soaked cotton if I think it might save on energy bills! MY PROPERTY, MY RIGHT TO A FIRE TRAP!
WOO FREEDOM! MURICA!
I vaguely remember the last round of BS related to this was twits refusing to do that and screaming about religious persecution.
Uh the fact that they make minimum wage and can't afford to pay out of pocket is what's stopping them.
Currently (or rather, next year starting) businesses with over 50 employees are obligated to provide health insurance.
This effectively raises minimum wage since you have to give a minimum wage paycheck + valuable health insurance.
If the plans offered don't provide the healthcare you need, though, then you either need to pay out of pocket for the treatment or buy a whole new insurance plan out of pocket, neither of which they can afford out of their minimum wage paycheck. And so these people go without medical treatment. Medical treatments which were specifically deemed by law to be included as a basic and important healthcare service that are supposed to be part of the obligate package.
Also, it is very important to mention that
contraceptives are used to treat a variety of conditions that have nothing to do with sex. Endometriosis and other reproductive issues or diseases, even auto-immune diseases. In fact, my girlfriend has lupus, and is allergic / has horrible reactions to all hormone based birth controls. However, she can tolerate a copper IUD, which provides contraception, yes, but much more importantly, it stimulates her overactive diseased immune system to attack the copper, which essentially distracts it and prevents it from attacking her organs, extending her lifespan and reducing reliance on other dangerous drugs considerably.
It also saves taxpayers and employers a ton of cash by paying for a piece of copper instead of thousands of dollars of immunosuppressants and who knows what all else.
This can be life saving treatment and if her coverage for that were removed, she would be forced to quit her job and have huge difficulty finding another one due to her condition's restrictions, and probably end up on social security disability, where taxpayers would be paying the equivalent of an IUD to her every single month instead of once. I.e. it would completely and utterly backfire in tax and efficiency and be a far worse alternative for everybody, as well as risking her life and forcing her to live in her car for months or years while trying to get a new unlikely job or disability.
But even if we are just talking about sex itself, you can I'm sure easily imagine the massive healthcare saving and other intangible benefits to the nation of paying a few dollars for birth control versus paying a foster system to take care of some messed up kid for 18 years, and then everybody paying section 8 housing for him/her potentially later on, etc. etc. if born to parents that can't take care of them.
A company's actions in all of these ways affect ALL OF OUR pocket books. Thus, you don't and shouldn't have the right as a company to make whatever the hell decision you want, because it has fallout on America. In such cases, America has a reasonable right to restrict your choices to minimize external damages.