Biden’s surrender to the pro-abortion radicals damaged his presidential prospects. First, it made him seem weak and unprincipled. Few pro-choice voters would have abandoned Biden because he opposed taxpayer-funded abortion; indeed, plenty of pro-choice voters agree with that position. But voters will abandon a politician who abandons his principles.

Second, it hurt Biden with the one group he claims he can win back for Democrats: working-class voters who cast their ballots twice for him and President Barack Obama, but switched to Donald Trump in 2016. These once-reliable Democratic voters are more socially conservative than the liberal elites. Abortion radicalism doesn’t appeal to them.

Third, Biden’s capitulation refocused the national spotlight on abortion extremism in the Democratic Party. After Alabama passed the most restrictive abortion law in the country, Democrats thought they had the upper hand in painting Republicans as abortion extremists. But now the focus is back on Democrats and their insistence on taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand up to the moment of birth. In New York, Democrats just lit up the Freedom Tower to celebrate the passage of a new law that removes most restrictions on abortion, even in the third trimester, and in Illinois, the legislature just voted to repeal the state’s Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. As a senator, Biden consistently voted against late-term abortions. Will he cave on that as well?