You may be planning to have an abortion and wondering what steps you need to take before you begin the procedure. A positive pregnancy test may make you feel like you should immediately start looking for an abortion provider, but you should actually STI test first.

There are two medical services you need prior to beginning any abortion procedure, with the most important being an ultrasound. The reason for an ultrasound is to confirm that you have an intrauterine pregnancy, to see how far along you are, and to confirm the pregnancy is viable. 

The next highly recommended step is getting STI (sexually transmitted infection) testing.  You might be asking yourself, “Why STI test first?”  Let’s look at that question.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Pelvic infection is the commonest complication of legal abortion.”

That means that even when you follow the necessary steps to have a ‘safe abortion,’ if you have an undetected STI you are at a higher risk for complications. By getting an STI test first, you can protect your reproductive health.

You may think you are ‘good’ and don’t need to STI test first because you don’t have any symptoms of an STI. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, many STIs don’t have any symptoms – but that does not mean:

• you don’t have one,
• that you can’t pass it to your partner,
• or that you haven’t gotten one from your unknowing partner