WHERE ABORTION IS concerned, it appears there is at least one thing on which ideological opposites Justices Samuel Alito and Ketanji Brown Jackson agree: The Supreme Court’s decision this week to avoid ruling on whether federal law protects abortion care in emergency situations was the wrong one.

Their differences immediately reemerge, however, as to why. For Alito, the answer is that there is apparently no federal law that protects abortion access, and the court should have said so. For Jackson, the reason is opposite: Federal law clearly protects patients who need abortion care, and failing to say so puts people in harm’s way.

“How long must pregnant patients wait for an answer?” Jackson wrote in a fiery dissent. “Today’s decision is not a victory for pregnant patients in Idaho. It is delay.”