Of course it's one of the great unexamined issues. In the middle ages, scholars could argue when life began, and many argued that it began when the child "quickened" (i.e. came alive) in the womb and the mother could feel it kick. The Christian believe is that God creates and infuses the soul into the unborn child, and back then it was possible to think that maybe God did so a month or six weeks after conception.
They also believed that Nile mud could spawn living creatures.
Scientists now know that none of these theories was true. Life begins at conception. If life begins then, and if you believe with Aristotle and the Church that "the soul is the form of the body," then the unborn baby must have a soul from the beginning too. Leaving that aside, however, it's still clear that the unborn child is a) human and b) alive from conception onward. That is a scientific truth, not a religious opinion.
I believe that probably 99% of proabortionists understand this at some level. Abortion kills a living human being. That's the scientific reality. But only a few of them will admit it, even to themselves, partly because it bothers them and partly because admitting it risks losing votes at the polls for their precious "right" to kill babies.
Many ignorant viewers thought that Pontius Pilate came off better in "The Passion" than the Chief Priests of the Jews, because he knew that Jesus was innocent. Anyone with the moral sense God gave a gnat, however, understands that Pilate comes off worse, because he knew Jesus was innocent but killed him anyway. The same applies to John Kerry.
Good point. John "what is truth?" Kerry.