Beyond legality: Bureaucratic violence and obstacles to abortion care

Pregnant people across the globe continue to face significant barriers in their ability to access abortion care. Some of these barriers are due to bureaucratic systems that can delay or even deny abortion care access, highlighting how complex procedures, fragmented systems, and opaque rules bring challenges to getting services, especially for those with fewer resources or less institutional familiarity. Illuminating these operational processes and outcomes, this study advances the concept of "bureaucratic violence" to capture how administrative barriers can produce harm. Drawing on 36 in-depth interviews with Canadian reproductive health professionals and advocates, we identify three forms of bureaucratic violence. First, general bureaucratic impediments mean that individuals face poor access to information and technological challenges to accessing care. Second, bureaucratic processes generate funding barriers that restrict some populations from obtaining services. Finally, bureaucratic procedures for billing create additional obstacles to receiving care. Overall, this article uncovers how bureaucracy can serve as a formidable barrier that results in violence against some pregnant people's bodily autonomy and their ability to access abortion.