President Joe Biden is encouraging voters to send pro-choice legislators to Congress to counter the Supreme Court’s indicated overturning of Roe v. Wade. But Biden and his Democratic colleagues are going to be in for a wake-up call if they think abortion will save their majority.

Democrats think they enjoy the popular stance on abortion, even as they move to oppose every single law that mildly inconveniences the abortion industry. But abortion has no popular support after the first trimester of pregnancy. Democrats can’t even bring themselves to support a ban on abortion after 20 weeks, and indeed, many are in favor of simply lifting all abortion restrictions, even while the majority of the country thinks abortion should be illegal after 13 weeks.

Democrats have placed outsize importance on abortion thanks to the misconception that they speak for the majority on the subject. Democrats think they can ride the hysteria of their base over the issue to big wins, and yet that hasn’t been carried out in recent elections. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in running for his old job in 2021, made fearmongering about abortion laws a central part of his campaign, putting Texas's heartbeat law front and center.

The result? McAuliffe’s lead dissipated in Virginia, a state that backed Biden by 10 points, and he ended up losing. Just 8% of voters named abortion as their most important issue, and the majority of those voters backed GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin, not McAuliffe.

In a normal election year, the idea that abortion could be the issue with which Democrats win would be dubious at best. In a year in which inflation has risen to a 40-year high and voters are concerned with the price of gas, Democrats complaining that states will now be able to ban abortions after 15 weeks isn’t going to be the saving grace Biden and others want it to be.

Democrats have moved too far to the left to win on abortion, even if self-described pro-choice voters were passionate about it. But the voters who are most passionate about it are conservatives, and the vast majority of voters in this election cycle will be entering the voting booth thinking about the soaring inflation under Biden and a unified Democratic Congress. Planned Parenthood doesn’t take priority over the price of gas or groceries, and no Supreme Court ruling will change that.