The Supreme Court came up short again on Friday, trying to thread a strategic needle. In an apparent attempt to answer the public backlash from its Sept. 1 decision leaving in effect Texas’ “heartbeat” abortion law, the court sped up review of one limited part of the case. Hoping perhaps that fast-tracking part of the case would be enough to stem a tide of disapproval, the court majority still doubled down on its earlier mistake of leaving a clearly unconstitutional law in effect pending further decision.

The result is to keep Texas women’s constitutional right to reproductive control on the dark side of the moon. Virtually all abortion clinics in the state remain shuttered and 85-95% of Texas women will be deprived of reproductive freedom guaranteed by Roe.