In the post-2016 election season, the rebuilding Democrat Party doubled down on a strategy that is imploding before our very eyes. The party isn’t entirely blind to the divisions that became evident during the last presidential campaign, hence the commissioning of DNC chairman Tom Perez and Sen. Bernie Sanders to undertake a so-called unity tour. But instead of expanding the tent, party leaders are singling out some for exclusion by further politicizing a contentious social issue — abortion.

The latest ordeal began in Nebraska, where Sanders is throwing his support behind Heath Mello, a Democrat “pro-life” state lawmaker who has his eyes set on the Omaha mayor’s seat. It’s important to note that, contrary to some media reports, Mello is not a bona fide pro-lifer. Many years ago he dared to support legislation that merely “requires the physician performing the abortion to tell a woman an ultrasound is available,” the Associated Press reported in 2009, “but it doesn’t require the ultrasound to be performed.” This fact alone elicited a peculiar firestorm from party radicals.

DNC Chief Perez tried to “clear the air,” stating: “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health. That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.” The statement backfired — it ostracized more than a quarter of self-described Democrats who take issue with abortion. Instead of quelling the issue, it fueled it. Other prominent Democrats eventually chimed in as well.

Chuck Schumer: “Look, we’re a big tent party as Nancy Pelosi said, but we are, let’s make no mistake about it, we are a pro-choice party. We’re a strongly pro-choice party. We think that’s where the American people are, and in fact, if anything, are moving even more in that direction.”

Sen. Dick Durbin: “I know within the ranks of the Democratic Party there are those who see [this issue] differently on a personal basis, but when it comes to the policy position, I think we need to be clear and unequivocal. We need to be understanding of those who take a different position because of personal conscience. But as long as they are prepared to back the law, Roe versus Wade, prepared to back women’s rights as we’ve defined them under the law, then I think they can be part of the party.”

The message here? If you’re a pro-life Democrat, you’re welcome — so long as you sit in the back of the class and keep your mouth shut. As Dan McLaughlin writes: “In every way, the Democratic Party today stands unified not only against legal restrictions on abortion, but for government subsidies of abortion. The fiction that anyone can vote Democrat today without embracing abortion as an affirmative good is falling to tatters.” How does that in any way define tolerance and inclusivity? Furthermore, why are Saturday’s “March for Science” crusaders ignoring the science proving that babies in utero are more than just a lump of tissue?

Instead of Democrats learning from their mistakes, they’re doomed to repeat them. Pretty soon, Democrats may even began to wonder if ousting Debbie Wasserman Schultz from the DNC was a good idea.