Dr. Patricia Lohr:

Sepsis in abortion is extremely rare. Upper genital tract infection, treated with oral antibiotics, is reported variably in the studies and often depends on the diagnostic criteria used. Where the diagnostic criteria are very strict, for example in cases of fever and evidence of increased of white blood cell count, the rates are quite low. There are higher rates where diagnostic criteria are vague, somewhere around one in 100. Those are typically treated with oral antibiotics. They are not cases of sepsis. Cases of serious sepsis are extremely uncommon.