I actually think abortion should be banned, except for health threats to the mother or the child has no brain function well into the pregnency (by no brain activity I mean no brain activity).
Seriously the child in the womb is a human being, it is no less of a person than you are.
If we look at the environment the child is in:
[*]Near constant temperature
[*]Any smells or tastes would be a constant
[*]Any sounds that the child will hear is muffled
[*]It is a pitch black environment
[*]Relatively limited space to move
Essentially the child has spent their entire life in a sensory deprivation chamber thus far, the idea that the child isn't a person because it isn't able to walk and talk immediately, is an unreasonable definition, because if we put you in the same scenario up until adulthood, you wouldn't be capable of walking, talking, etc. either. So would that mean you aren't a person?
Doctors and Scientists have known for some time that our brain can reconfigure itself to compensate for some brain damage over time and other parts of the brain can take over functions of damaged parts. An infant can recover completely from minor brain damage, because of just how rapidly the brain is still developing (neural pathways).
Considering the brain and spinal cord begin to develop before anything else (even the heart), and while a heartbeat can be detected earlier than brain activity, the detection of brain activity is now about 48 days after conception (and they are detecting the activity with the mother's stomach, womb, skin, etc. interfering with detecting said brain activity.
Since the brain can reroute pathways and have other parts of the brain take over for damaged parts, has anyone stopped and considered the possibility that the same may be happening in the child's brain, and that people are just telling themselves the child isn't a person so they can sleep at night.
Fun Fact: Babies actually have more brain cells than you do.
Now, however, scientists have begun to dramatically revise their concept of a baby's mind. By using new research techniques and tools, they've revealed that the baby brain is abuzz with activity, capable of learning astonishing amounts of information in a relatively short time. Unlike the adult mind, which restricts itself to a narrow slice of reality, babies can take in a much wider spectrum of sensation - they are, in an important sense, more aware of the world than we are.
This hyperawareness comes with several benefits. For starters, it allows young children to figure out the world at an incredibly fast pace. Although babies are born utterly helpless, within a few years they've mastered everything from language - a toddler learns 10 new words every day - to complex motor skills such as walking. According to this new view of the baby brain, many of the mental traits that used to seem like developmental shortcomings, such as infants' inability to focus their attention, are actually crucial assets in the learning process.
In fact, in some situations it might actually be better for adults to regress into a newborn state of mind. While maturity has its perks, it can also inhibit creativity and lead people to fixate on the wrong facts. When we need to sort through a lot of seemingly irrelevant information or create something completely new, thinking like a baby is our best option.
Inside the baby mind - The Boston Globe
The fact that a child can't talk immediately after birth is because they have to learn the language first. Walking actually is more complex than you realize, so the child has to learn how to walk, the subtle shifts in balance to keep from falling flat on their face, etc.
