Given the teaching of the Church and the prominence of its leadership as foes of legalized abortion, Catholic politicians who did not support the hierarchy's position were increasingly beleaguered in the 1980s. New York Governor Mario Cuomo, in widely publicized remarks delivered at the University of Notre Dame, articulated a defense that many such politicians thereafter used to justify their positions. Cuomo argued that his belief in the Church's teaching on the inviolability of human life from conception did not require that he support legislation in favor of that belief within a pluralistic society such as the United States.