Most recently, Senate Democrats botched a bill codifying a national right to abortion because they insisted on pushing a messaging bill that would have forbidden nearly all restrictions on abortion, rather than one closer to where the mainstream of the public is: restrictions on abortions after the first trimester, but broad access before that point. If grateful moderate Republicans didn’t send Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) a fruit basket to thank him for sparing them a tough vote, they should have.

Yet pro-lifers who enjoy fighting on this territory are in the same pickle as pro-choicers who want to focus on rape and incest: Democrats can undercut them at any time by conceding the relatively small number of elective, later-term abortions to protect the 93 percent that are performed before the 14th week.

Eventually we have to be prepared to argue about what abortion mostly is: a medical procedure largely obtained early in pregnancy by healthy women who don’t want a child right now. That terrain may not be quite as comfortable to fight on, but it’s where you need to win.