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While it is true that there is definitely brain function in fetuses, it is only in the more primitive functional regions of the brain. Higher brain function (i.e. the part of the brain responsible for consciousness and most high-level brain functioning) is non-functional until several months after birth. While the neurons grow in the higher brain regions, they are missing some critical (and bulky) components that turn them from useless tissue into functional brain. The missing pieces are added to the brain after birth and only then do you see real higher brain function. The general theory is that this allows an otherwise impossibly large brain to pass through the human birth canal.

So all the neurons you'll have as an adult are essentially present at birth. The 3-4x difference in brain weight from the time you are born to the time you are an adult (most of which is gained in the first few years of life) are the additional components to make the neurons you are born with actually function.

Abortion may be evil, but saying that a fetus is conscious is a real stretch. Babies are essentially born with the level of awareness of a lizard. Which is plenty of brain for bootstrapping; lots of animals never have more than this level of consciousness.

Abortion may be evil, but saying that a fetus is conscious is a real stretch. Babies are essentially born with the level of awareness of a lizard.

And since we consider the killing of babies, once born, as murder, that suggests that current mental capacity is a bit of a red herring argument, doesn't it? If you look only at the current mental capacity of a being to define "personhood" and still desire to treat animals as non-persons, you will quickly find yourself sliding down the slippery slope towards two year-olds. I invite anyone here who doesn't believe that can happen to read the opinions of Michael Tooley and Peter Singer on infanticide and to research the history of infanticide throughout the ages and around the world. Abortion is simply pre-natal infanticide. Is infanticide murder? I'd hope most people would say "yes".