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As in many other African countries, induced abortion in Burkina Faso is characterized by social stigma and legal restriction. At the same time, induced abortion is frequent, and unsafe abortions constitute a major public health problem and an important cause of maternal mortality. Not only is it dramatic for the women involved and for the health workers who come into contact with them, but actors in the institutional sphere must also manage the multidimensional nature of abortion as a public health, legal, political and social issue.Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with officials from the ministry of Health, non-governmental organizations (both national and international), and multilateral organizations, we develop a political anthropology of abortion in Burkina Faso.This article focuses on how the Burkinabe state emphasizes post-abortion care (dealing with the consequences of unsafe abortion) at the expense of the question of abortion per se. We analyse the different levels of national policy-making relating to abortion in order to highlight how abortion is dealt with in multiple spaces of institutional decision-making. Our analysis reveals how policy actors are at an impasse, caught between their adherences to social and religious norms on the one hand, and, on the other, the technical actions required by post-abortion care, which disrupt these norms. Taking into account the perspectives of actors in relation to both their institutional functions and their personal trajectories helps us to understand the articulation of a major public health issue within the public sphere.