[Morality Games]

I don't know why this is such a tough issue for people.

A being who has no nervous system (or functional equivalent) has no legal rights because they lack the ego to want them, the intellect to make sense of them, and the will to put them to work. Certain animals get rights because they have at least some of one or two of these things, but never all three to a substantial degree. For all intents and purposes, a fetus is a non-entity, no more cognitively (emotionally-mentally) active than my desk. No awareness, no identity, no desire, no capability for social action, nothing.

The reason abortion is legal in progressive Western nations is that we are equality-driven democracies. Here, you need to demonstrate how an action taken by someone else irreparably damages the community as a whole before you outlaw it. Otherwise, you lack the right to claim you deserve to be left alone by other people who think the way you live your life is wrong ... aka, anyone who disagrees with you on anything is free to regulate any action you take on their whim, because they don't need to prove why what you do is wrong, they just need to feel it. That is the democratic maxim: everyone is equal, all will be treated under the same standard.

The only reason abortion hasn't been outlawed is because pro-lifers have never been able to demonstrate how a fetus is a living human being in a significant sense. That's really the only reason.