Err. You:
This is definitely a viewpoint, pretty explicitly. If you think that you’re being completely neutral or playing devil’s advocate, you’re either under a sad delusion or ur doin it wrong.
As for when exactly the fetus becomes a human being, there is no answer. This is completely subjective. Some religions advocate that it’s a human being from the moment the egg is fertilized and so it should be treated like one. Some people don’t consider it a human being until it can function independently from the mother’s body (after it is born). As far as the government goes on this idea, so far a fetus has no status as a human being until it is born. The census doesn’t count them, not even in the third trimester. If they were counted as human beings by government standards, HOV lane sensors would have to be replaced with ultrasound. If a woman travelled out of the country while pregnant, the fetus would need a passport. As soon as a woman got pregnant she could file for the unborn child on her taxes. So many huge changes would have to be made and they are all, quite frankly, inconvenient and ultimately ridiculous in nature.
I personally think that the fetus is a “human being” after it has developed the nervous system and brain function necesary to think, feel and move. By that point, it has our characteristics. I guess what I am trying to say is that abortion is a necessary evil.
As for abortion being murder, I disagree. The law defines murder as “The unlawful killing of another human being without justification or excuse”. Ignoring the already murky area of wether or not the fetus is a “human being”, the fact is that no woman in her right mind elects to destroy her unborn child in the same way a murderer decides to take the life of another person. It’s not the least bit comparable in nature.