The Abortion Pill Fight Is Not Over. Here’s What’s Next.

Though the Supreme Court ruled upheld access to mifepristone, the case is likely to be revived by three Republican-led states as the plaintiffs.

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The decision will most likely fuel efforts to restrict access to abortion pills in other ways.

The Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to dismissing one effort to curtail access to abortion pills did not eliminate the possibility that other plaintiffs would continue to mount challenges to the medication that is used in a majority of abortions in the country.

The lawsuit before the Supreme Court was rejected because the justices unanimously ruled that the plaintiffs — a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations — did not have standing to sue because they could not show they had been harmed by the availability of abortion pills.

But the case is likely to be revived with different plaintiffs: three Republican-led states that months ago petitioned successfully to join the case at the lower court level.

Late last year, the states — Missouri, Idaho and Kansas — were granted status to be plaintiffs by Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, an appointee of President Donald J. Trump who heard the original lawsuit and who openly opposes abortion access. When the case was accepted by the Supreme Court, the justices denied the three states’ request to intervene as plaintiffs at that level.

But anti-abortion groups say the three states will likely now return to the district court and resurrect the attempt to restrict access to the medication, mifepristone.

In a statement on Thursday, SBA Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion group said: “The case returns to district court where the pro-life states of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri are seeking to take up the challenge based on harms suffered by women in their states.”

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