The reason religion is so powerful

[John 6IX Breezy]

...and you want to tell us that science and medicine say something relevant to abortion.

Right; there's a worrisome catchphrase in moral psychology: Moral intuitions come first, strategic reasoning second.

This behavior has been exemplified by the thread. People are willing to rationalize all sorts of peculiar views in order to bring embryology into harmony with their moral intuitions about abortion.

Science, which does it's best to carve nature at her joints, ought to inform our moral views on the subject, not the other way around. I stand by that.