Just the other night, a friend of my roommate (a girl) came in discussing how irritated she was that a guy had the nerve to call abortion "infanticide." She claims that infanticide is the killing of an infant, which abortion is not. It is the killing of a "fetus," which apparently is as worthy of life as the cockroach in your basement. Because it is 9 months away from becoming a human, it is therefore not worthy of life.

There were some horrific stories in the news over the past year of mothers drowning their babies after their birth or killing them in a microwave. No one challenges the disgust and horror of these (what no one hesitates to call) murders. But what is so different between these and abortions?

True, many abortions occur while the baby is in the womb, while these were certainly not. But what is so magical about the moment the head crowns? Why is it not a human until that very instant?

I'll quickly mention partial-birth abortions. These make up a very small percentage of abortions, but are identical to these murders. The baby's head emerges from the womb, and its throat is then slit. A ban on this procedure was vetoed by Bill Clinton in the 1990s, a move supported by many prominent Democrats. How is this better than putting your freshly born baby in the microwave? I suppose the clean room, white lab coat, and scalpel somehow make it "decent."

Life is more than just when the blood starts to flow, when the brain is big enough to maintain conscious thought, when the group of cells "looks" human, or even when pain can be felt. This group of cells is going to become a human being. In 9 months, it will be crying in its parents' arms. It will grow up to think, talk, cry, and be one of us. Who is some selfish mother to deny this human being that right?

It is not about small government vs. big government. As a conservative, I don't want the government interfering in my life. But this is about one of the fundamental rights spoken of in the Declaration of Independence and protected explicitly by the Constitution: Every human being in the United States has the right to live. It is not the mother's place to decide whether or not this is true; the right is given to us by God. And it is protected by this great government.

By performing an abortion even in the first trimester, you are denying a human being the right to exist. Maybe this bunch of cells can't think, see, or feel; but in time, it will.

A friend of mine, pro-abortion of course, referred to an unborn baby as a "tumor." Granted, it does have the same qualities of a tumor: a bunch of cells that use the resources of a host. But the difference between it and cancer is that it won't be a tumor forever. It will grow into a person.

This philosophy also extends to embryonic stem cells. Not only do they have no proven scientific applications (compared to over 73 by adult stem cells that do not require embryos), but by "harvesting" an embryo you prevent its ability to grow into a human.

Life is trying to begin. A human being is forming. Whether it is or not at the moment of the abortion is irrelevant; as soon as the sperm meets the egg, that zygote is destined to be a person. And denying it that chance to live and grow is wrong.