As we consider the potential implications of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, one open question is how states will enforce the abortion bans that are expected in at least twenty-six states. History suggests that the prospective anti-abortion laws are likely to echo the “War on Drugs;” they will not eliminate the behavior that is outlawed, but will, through biased, targeted enforcement, disproportionately harm poor people and people of color.

That abortion bans would resemble the War on Drugs is not merely metaphorical; more than half of abortions today are carried out using a two-pill treatment that terminates pregnancies up to ten weeks. Early in the Biden Administration, regulations requiring abortion pills to be taken in a clinic or doctor’s office were lifted. A number of states allow the pills to be delivered by mail after a consultation with a healthcare professional, which in many cases can be done through tele-health. Abortion opponents are already moving to make the medication inaccessible in anti-abortion states.

As the decades-long War on Drugs makes obvious, law enforcement does not render drugs unavailable. Rather, the drug war made it easy for the criminal justice system to target certain communities—particularly the poor and people of color. And disparities in the way in which drug policies are enforced infect every stage of the system—the decision to arrest, the decision whether to charge and which charges to bring, the trial process, and sentencing. Wealthy and white individuals rarely face serious drug charges—if any drug charges—for the same behaviors that would be charged to a poor individual, a person of color, or someone who falls into both categories.

There is every reason to expect similar systematic bias in the enforcement of abortion bans. We know this because although rare, states have actually prosecuted women for experiencing a miscarriage or stillbirth. Those cases reveal a clear pattern of racial and class bias. One study found that 59% of defendants were women of color, and 71% could not afford a lawyer. Though some of the most egregious instances of criminalizing pregnancy have sparked national outrage, the practice is widespread and becoming more common. Prosecutions have occurred in at least 44 states; of 1,600 recorded cases, three fourths occurred in the last 15 years.

Read the full article about the war on abortion drugs by Vanessa Williamson and John Hudak at Brookings.