If you identify the holder of the responsibilities, you identify the holder of the rights. Your right to free speech is YOUR right... speak out, or don't speak out. You hold the right and the First Amendment to the U.S. Federal Constitution ensures that it remains your right - the Federal government does not have the right to control, tamper or threaten your right to free speech.
Currently American citizens have the right to elect to use or not to use contraception. They have the right to choose which types, which brand names they prefer and even the quantity that they may obtain. The Federal government does not have any authority to override this right of American citizens.
A Federalized health care system, however, would infringe on the rights of Americans to direct their health care choices as they themselves determine. A Federalized health care system could dictate that all Americans must obtain contraception. Likewise that power and authority could be used to prohibit Americans from obtaining any form of contraception.
The fact that some forms of contraception currently have any regulation by the Federal government reveals that the Federal government is already reaching beyond its Constitutionally-proscribed boundaries. The ninth and tenth amendments clearly direct the Federal government to leave issues not specified in the US Constitution to the authority of the people and of the states. States have the authority to regulate products sold within their boundaries and thus they may regulate which contraceptive devices or medications are permitted. Likewise the people are free to choose to purchase or not to purchase any of the state-permitted options. The Federal government was never given the authority to interfere or in any way direct the decisions of the people or of the states regarding their personal care.
If you think that the Federal government providing "free" contraception means that the individual has been empowered, then you are missing the reality surrounding the intrusion of Federal bureaucracy into the lives of individual people. Perhaps you think that "free" contraception means that you will get birth control pills. Perhaps it means "free" condoms. Perhaps it means free medical or surgical services. Ultimately it only means that you are not free to choose and decide for yourself. You want birth control pills, but the "free" care that is available to you is to receive counseling on making use of the Rhythm Method. You want an abortion but the "free" care that the government pursues is to tell you to wait ten months for them to provide the abortion service to you.
A Federal health care system removes the freedom of these choices from the individual and isolates the choice to authorities who are distant from individual decisions about preference or choice. A Federal health care system empowers the Federal government to dictate which people receive medical care, which options of care are permitted, and how soon or how long that care would be provided. These powers run contrary to the freedoms intended in the US Federal Constitution.
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