(CNSNews.com) - Leaders of the Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist and Jewish faiths went before Congress Thursday, testifying that the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate violates religious freedom, as guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The religious leaders said they stand united in opposing the Obamacare dictate that says health insurance must cover birth control, including sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

“Religious people determine what violates their conscience, not the federal government,” the Reverend Dr. Matthew Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, told the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee.

“The conscience is a sacred thing. Our church exists because overzealous governments in northern Europe made decisions which trampled the religious convictions of our forbears.”

“We fought for a free conscience in this country and we won’t give it up without a fight,” he later added.

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, told the committee the Obama mandate does not apply only to Catholics:

“Not only is this an outrageous violation of one particular faith’s religious freedom, it’s quite frightening to all of us who care about our own religious freedom.”

Religious leaders were invited to testify about the new government regulation that would force virtually all health-care plans in the United States to cover all FDA-approved contraceptives under the heading of preventive care.