ABSTRACT
The legal termination of pregnancy has had a dramatic impact on the severe infectious morbidity associated with criminal abortion, but, in so doing, has introduced its own spectrum of infectious morbidity. The severity of infectious complications increases with gestational age because of the mode of termination of pregnancy that must be utilized. The primary contributing factors are those of omission or commission. The principal error of omission is the failure to monitor the patient for occult infection due to Neisseria gonorrhoeae or Chlamydia trachomatis prior to the operative procedure. The errors of commission involve primarily technical errors-failure to completely evacuate the uterus or to ensure adequate hemostasis. The infectious morbidity observed is partially dependent on the trimester in which the operative procedure is performed (Table 1).
