What is the difference between an abortion and a "most medical procedure"?

For one thing, an abortion is unlike "most medical procedures" in constitutionally significant ways. As previously mentioned, the decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy is exceptional and virtually unique among decisions that an adolescent woman might be called upon to make, because it both has profound nonmedical implications for the subsequent course of a woman's life and is time sensitive, requiring a decision within days or at most weeks. (Bellotti v. Baird, supra, 443 U.S. 622, 642-643, 99 S.Ct. 3035, 3047-3048, 61 L.Ed.2d 797.) Similarly, as a medical procedure, an abortion is exceptional; if the pregnancy is proceeding normally, abortion is an elective procedure, yet one that is medically time sensitive and that has far-reaching nonmedical implications for the subsequent course of the patient's life. It is also a medical procedure for which the utmost confidentiality is generally expected.