I tried 3 different programs for UART transmission found on various tutorials and I am still having the same issue. When I try to transmit a string, say "abcd", I only get adadadad.... on repeat. What might be the issue? Currently using the following functions:

void UART_send_char(char bt)
{
    while(!TXIF);  // hold the program till TX buffer is free
    TXREG = bt; //Load the transmitter buffer with the received value
}
void UART_send_string(char* st_pt)
        {
        while(*st_pt) //if there is a char
        UART_send_char(*st_pt  ); //process it as a byte data
        }

The function is called within the main block which does a bunch of other things but I am not sure why that might interfere with transmission:

void main() {
char op[12];                 // Display string for ascii converted long.
char opdb[12];               // double buffer to stop flicker.
unsigned long  freq = 0;     // display frequency value to use.
unsigned short blinkc=0;     // blink counter
int i,n,num;
unsigned char letter;
unsigned char test[]="abcd";

   init_ports();
   init_interrupts();

   Lcd_Init ();
   Lcd_Cmd ( _LCD_CLEAR );
   Lcd_Cmd ( _LCD_CURSOR_OFF );

   start_timer_count();

   for(;;) {

      if (update_LCD) {

         INTCON.GIE = 0;         // Disable All interrupts.
         INTCON.PEIE = 0;        // Disable All Extended interrupts.

         freq = (st_TMR1L (st_TMR1H<<8) (st_TMR1_ovfl<<16));//*1000;
         ltoa(freq, op, 10);

         n=ltoa(freq, opdb, 10);        // Build string in non display buffer
         memcpy(op,opdb,n);             // Copy digits
         memset(&op[n],' ',12-n);       // Blank the rest.

         LCD_Out(1,1,"FREQ:");
         LCD_Out(1,7,op);


         UART_send_string("abcd"); //<-----------TRANSMISSION FUNCTION CALLED HERE

         update_LCD=0;

         TMR1_counter=0;
         TMR0_counter=0;

         start_timer_count();
      }

      if (toggle_LED) {  // Also check for signal presence at TMR1.
         blinkc=~blinkc;
         if (blinkc==0) { setBit(PORTD,0); } else { resBit(PORTD,0); }
         toggle_LED=0;

           if (freq==0) {
              for ( i=0;i<12;i  ) { op[i]=' ';}
              LCD_Out(1,7,op);
          }
      }
   }
}