The Supreme Court ruling Friday to allow Texas abortion providers to sue over the state’s ban on most abortions was a narrow win for abortion rights, supporters and opponents said.

The law, which went into effect in September, allows private citizens to sue doctors or anyone else who helps facilitate an abortion in Texas after cardiac activity is detected in the womb, usually around six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that the number of abortions fell by half during the ban’s first month from 5,377 statewide in August to 2,164 in September.

The 8-1 decision allows providers to return to a district judge who once blocked the law, but it keeps the country’s most restrictive abortion ban in place for now.

Abortion rights advocates largely welcomed the ruling but took issue with the justice’s decision not to also block the law as it works its way through the courts.  “While it is a positive development that abortion providers can continue their legal challenges against the blatantly unconstitutional law, it is unconscionable that the Court is allowing the ban to remain in effect throughout the legal process,” Elizabeth Nash, a principal policy associate for the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement.