{"id":62222,"date":"2015-04-09T19:55:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T23:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=62222"},"modified":"2024-05-06T00:27:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T05:27:08","slug":"the-tyranny-of-a-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/","title":{"rendered":"The tyranny of a majority"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>On January 22, 1973, seven justices on the U.S. Supreme Court decided to allow abortions to occur on-demand across the country, forming a majority decision.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150412013044\/http:\/\/www.harrisinteractive.com\/vault\/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-MAJORITY-AGREE-WITH-SUPREME-COURT-DECISION-ON-ABORTION-1973-04.pdf\">Harris survey<\/a> released in April 1973\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0three months after the <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision &#8211; the majority of Americans agreed with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision: 52\u00a0percent were in favor of legalizing abortion. Prior to the landmark decision, the public\u2019s opinion on the legalization of abortion often fluctuated, but immediately following the decision, solidified in favor of abortion. Louis Harris, the author of the report, described this shift: \u201cThe crystallizing of public opinion following a decision by the high court or an act of Congress is not an unusual development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In June 1981, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.harrisinteractive.com\/vault\/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-LEGALIZED-ABORTION-SUPPORTED-BY-MAJORITY-OF-AMERICANS-1981-06.pdf\">another Harris survey<\/a> was released, reporting the current status of the abortion argument in the United States. &#8220;Legalized Abortion Supported by Majority of Americans,&#8221; as 54 percent of Americans now agreed with abortion\u2019s legalization.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, Gallup released a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/poll\/170249\/split-abortion-pro-choice-pro-life.aspx?utm_source=ABORTION&amp;utm_medium=topic&amp;utm_campaign=tiles\">poll last May<\/a> detailing the split between pro-abortion\u00a0and pro-life Americans: 47\u00a0percent of Americans now identify as pro-abortion, while 46\u00a0percent identify as pro-life. So while those in favor of abortion still hold the majority viewpoint, according to a graph provided by Gallup, those identifying as pro-life has been climbing since the &#8217;90s. Those identifying as pro-life even held the majority public opinion in both 2009 and 2012.<\/p>\n<p>It is disheartening to think that a pro-abortion mentality has dominated our country for the last 43\u00a0years, yet exciting to think that we are closing the gap. And while public opinion polls can certainly and obviously be used as indicators as to where the public stands on specific issues, that is all they can do. Their results do not dictate what is right or wrong. Public opinion can never be used as an indication of what is moral or right, simply because it is the majority.<\/p>\n<p>Two of my favorite quotes pertaining to this subject are from the film &#8220;The Great Debaters<em>.&#8221;\u00a0<\/em>The first is this: \u201cMajorities do not decide what is right or wrong\u00a0\u2014your conscience does.\u201d Again, while it\u2019s concerning and dangerous that throughout the years, the majority of Americans have identified as pro-abortion, from a purely objective moral standpoint, that knowledge bears no detriment to the pro-life argument.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> legalized abortion by a majority decision does not make legalized abortion constitutional or moral. Last year, one percent more Americans identified as pro-choice than pro-life but that does not make abortion right nor should it be used as a justification for an unjust law. No matter how many oppose us, a misled majority belief cannot confuse my conscience with what I know in my heart to be true, which is that abortion is a murderous act that defies our very human nature.<\/p>\n<p>As one of the debaters so gloriously declared: \u201cWe must never ever kneel down before the tyranny of a majority.\u201d Someday soon, hopefully, when the majority of Americans identify as pro-life and nine Supreme Court judges rule in favor of the abolition of abortion, we will not be right because we are the majority. We will be right because the ending of precious human life is wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 22, 1973, seven justices on the U.S. Supreme Court decided to allow abortions to occur on-demand across the country, forming a majority decision. According to a Harris survey released in April 1973\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0three months after the Roe v. Wade decision &#8211; the majority of Americans agreed with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision: 52\u00a0percent were in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":62292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The tyranny of a majority - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The tyranny of a majority - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On January 22, 1973, seven justices on the U.S. Supreme Court decided to allow abortions to occur on-demand across the country, forming a majority decision. According to a Harris survey released in April 1973\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0three months after the Roe v. Wade decision &#8211; the majority of Americans agreed with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision: 52\u00a0percent were in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-09T23:55:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-06T05:27:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/blueVSorange1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alexandra Liebl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alexandra Liebl\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alexandra Liebl\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f5e9b87bcb38abc611711b8b3ee8f070\"},\"headline\":\"The tyranny of a majority\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-09T23:55:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-06T05:27:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\"},\"wordCount\":537,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\",\"name\":\"The tyranny of a majority - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-09T23:55:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-06T05:27:08+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The tyranny of a majority\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f5e9b87bcb38abc611711b8b3ee8f070\",\"name\":\"Alexandra Liebl\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/12b176d1c98273efc645954c6169ca6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/12b176d1c98273efc645954c6169ca6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alexandra Liebl\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/alexandral\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The tyranny of a majority - Live Action News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The tyranny of a majority - Live Action News","og_description":"On January 22, 1973, seven justices on the U.S. Supreme Court decided to allow abortions to occur on-demand across the country, forming a majority decision. According to a Harris survey released in April 1973\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0three months after the Roe v. Wade decision &#8211; the majority of Americans agreed with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision: 52\u00a0percent were in [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2015-04-09T23:55:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-06T05:27:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":514,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/blueVSorange1-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Alexandra Liebl","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alexandra Liebl","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/"},"author":{"name":"Alexandra Liebl","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f5e9b87bcb38abc611711b8b3ee8f070"},"headline":"The tyranny of a majority","datePublished":"2015-04-09T23:55:09+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-06T05:27:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/"},"wordCount":537,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Analysis"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/","name":"The tyranny of a majority - Live Action News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-09T23:55:09+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-06T05:27:08+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-tyranny-of-a-majority\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The tyranny of a majority"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f5e9b87bcb38abc611711b8b3ee8f070","name":"Alexandra Liebl","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/12b176d1c98273efc645954c6169ca6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/12b176d1c98273efc645954c6169ca6a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alexandra Liebl"},"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/alexandral\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62222"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311866,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62222\/revisions\/311866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}