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I believe that Louis Pasteur answered the "when life begins" question. Life doesn't begin at conception. Nor does it begin at implantation, nor quickening, nor birth. Life is present the entire time. And, in case there's any question, it's human life the entire time.
Conception is certainly an important milestone. But nature doesn't have a lot of respect for the zygote. A lot of them, I believe a majority, don't even make it to implantation. It's hard for me to work up a lot of moral outrage over a few undifferentiated cells which most likely won't make it anyway. Potential? The potential is there the whole time, even before conception. Following the potential argument leads you to "every sperm is sacred" -- or at least, "every egg is sacred". So with that, I find there simply is no bright line before which it's reasonable to say "abortion's no big deal" and after which "abortion is akin to infanticide". You can pick one as the Roe v. Wade court did, but everything short of a total ban will tick off the so-called "pro-life" side, and anything close to a total ban will tick off the so-called "pro-choice side", so you can't win.
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