Abstract
Opening ParagraphIn his survey of abortion in 400 pre-industrial societies, Devereux (1955: 161) concludes:…there is every indication that abortion is an absolutely universal phenomenon, and that it is impossible even to construct an imaginary social system in which no woman would ever feel at least impelled to abort.Where the universality of abortion is equated with the urge to abort, one can hardly disagree with such a statement. The question, however, of whether or not abortion ever actually occurred—or still occurs—ubiquitously and to a demographically significant extent is difficult to answer. Among the Akan in Ghana, where I did anthropological fieldwork intermittently between 1969 and 1973, abortion was widespread, a practice which seemed to have roots in precolonial traditions. People referred to abortion as sɛe adeɛ (‘spoiling the thing’).
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