How abortion pill challenges may rise again

• Three Republican-led states — Idaho, Kansas and Missouri — are expected to revive the push against mifepristone. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey already said he'll pick his case back up at the district court.
• "What should happen in the ordinary court of law is that the entire case is dismissed, including the claims of the three states," Rabia Muqaddam, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Axios. "However, we know that the ordinary course is not often what happens."
• Health care professionals who provide abortions speaking with NPR described the Supreme Court ruling as a "pause in panic" and some reacted with tepid excitement.

State of play: The high court ruled unanimously against the doctors who brought the case — who neither prescribe nor use mifepristone — because they couldn't show they were directly injured by it. Any state that brought forward another suit would have to prove harm.

• Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested in his opinion that the legislative process is better fit to regulate abortion pills than the judiciary.

The Supreme Court earlier blocked Idaho, Kansas and Missouri from joining the lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration after it took up the case.

• The three states could attempt to keep the case going or get relief from the district court. Attorneys general from Idaho and Kansas did not respond to Axios' requests for comment.
• The states alleged "direct monetary harm to state-run insurance programs and hospitals, and harm to the states' sovereign interests in creating and enforcing laws," in their notice of intervention to the Supreme Court.
• Note: Kansas still allows abortions while Missouri and Idaho have bans.

Friction point: "[The states] have the same issues demonstrating that they are concretely injured by other people prescribing medication abortion to other people in other states," Muqaddam said. "They should not be able to move forward."

• "Nevertheless, they may attempt to seek another injunction or do any number of things to keep the case going."

Zoom out: The Supreme Court's ruling left lower courts to resolve the merits of medicated abortion, Alina Salganicoff, director for women's health policy at nonprofit health organization KFF, told Axios.

• Other states could similarly test medication access.
• Reproductive rights advocates are monitoring challenges to "shield laws" that protect physicians mailing abortion pills to patients in states where abortion is banned.

Zoom in: Mifepristone is typically used in tandem with misoprostol to end a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks.

• Both drugs are FDA-approved and have long safety and efficacy records.

The big picture: Other legislative challenges to abortion pill access remain viable too.

• The 1873 Comstock Act's potential restriction on abortion pills was not in the scope of the Supreme Court's case. The act banned the interstate mailing of "obscene" material like pornography, as well as abortion drugs and contraception.
• The abortion provision has stayed on the books and gained more attention in the post-Roe era. Anti-abortion groups say the next Republican administration could use Comstock to restrict mailing abortion pills.

The bottom line: The ruling Thursday was "a win– but only for now," reproductive rights organization Abortion Action Missouri said in a statement.

• "Anti-abortion politicians and lobbyists have historically used the courts to adapt their attacks, only to come back for more."

Go deeper: Supreme Court preserves abortion pill access after tossing challenge