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There are four basic ways that the embryo or fetus (who is not protected under the law) is different from a newborn baby (who is protected under the law). The first difference is size. Embryos are smaller than fetuses who are smaller (usually) than newborns. The question, then, is this. What does size have to do with rights of personhood? The answer: nothing.
Smaller people are no more or less human than those who are bigger. Embryos and fetuses are smaller than newborns just as newborns are smaller than infants and infants are smaller than toddlers and toddlers are smaller than adolescents and adolescents are smaller than teenagers and teenagers are smaller than adults. Size doesn't matter. It is lawful to kill a fly and not lawful to kill a person, not because the person is bigger, but because the person is human. Humanity is what matters. Trees are generally bigger than people, but it is lawful to cut the branches off trees, but unlawful to cut arms off people. Why? Because humanity, not size, is what determines rights of personhood. This might seem laughably obvious but there are all number of people out there who actually justify abortion based simply on the tiny size of the embryo or fetus.
Think about this, it is often true that newborn babies, born prematurely, are smaller than other fetuses who are still inside the womb. All those fetuses still in the womb, may be legally aborted in all fifty states despite the fact that they are bigger than many premature newborns. To argue that abortion is justified because early embryos and fetuses are so small is a rationale with no logical basis. Size doesn't determine personhood after birth and it shouldn't determine personhood before birth.
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