As everyone knows, one of the pet crusades of the fundamentalists is to stop abortion at all costs. Another is to discredit evolution at all costs. Want to hear something ironic? If they do one, they might well fail at the other.
The basic reason for this comes down to the definition of "life." The abortion issue revolves around the question of whether a fertilized ovum is actually alive or not. Some say it is (the fundies and some others) and some say it isn't.
Now, one of the things fundies do to discredit evolution is maintain that we can't create life in a laboratory, and that a mixture of lifeless chemicals will not combine to form a living organism. Of course, this has nothing to do with evolution. Evolution is the study of how life changes over time, regardless of where that life came from. Abiogenesis is the study of the actual origins of life itself. Creationists lump these two together, even though they're not the same thing at all, nor dependent upon each other.
So, back to the question: What qualifies as "alive"?
One definition is, "anything capable of self replication." And if this definition is adhered to, then a fertilized ovum would qualify as alive. It undergoes mitosis… one cell splits into two, into four, into eight, etc. So anti-abortionists could use this to strengthen their arguments.
Unfortunately for the fundies, if this is the definition they want, they have to apply it to everything, which means their little argument against evolution (abiogenesis) gets shot to pieces. We have, in the laboratory, combined non-living chemicals to form self-replicating molecules. Dr. Sidney Fox has also done work with things he calls "proteinoid microspheres," which are easily formed in the lab and have a membrane much like a cell wall. In short, humans can create life, something fundies say only God can do.
Personally, I think this definition of life is too simplistic. By this definition, a computer virus could be called "alive." Nature seldom shows us clear-cut divisions between anything, including between what is alive and what isn't. So if a self-replicating molecule isn't alive, neither is a fertilized ovum.
Eventually, I think the question for the fundies will come down to, "Which is more important? Stopping abortion or undermining evolution?" I don't think they'll be able to do both.
