London, england -- they walk. They yawn. They rub their eyes. And it's been only 12 weeks since they were conceived.


Some incredible new ultrasound techniques developed in great britain may change the tenor of the heated debate over legal abortion.


The ultrasound scans show 12-week-old unborn babies not only walking in the womb, but stretching and kicking--long before the mother can feel the baby's movements.


The images themselves came as a surprise to professor stuart campbell of london's create health clinic, who developed the scans.


Campbell told the bbc, "this is a new science for understanding and mapping out the behavior of the baby. Maybe in the future it will help us understand and diagnose genetic disease, maybe even conditions like cerebral palsy which puzzles the medical profession as to why it occurs."

the society for the protection of unborn children, a british pro-life group, sees the incredibly detailed images as a breakthrough in the battle against abortion.


The group's national director, john smeaton, said, "these pictures are a wonderful reminder of the fact that the unborn child is a living human being. These pictures are of babies as young as 12 weeks' gestation, the age at which a large percentage of abortions are carried out in this country."

"tragically, unborn children such as these are killed at a rate of one every three minutes," smeaton added. "we hope and pray though that many lives will be saved by these awe-inspiring pictures. We challenge abortion providers, in the interests of informed consent, to show these pictures to women seeking abortion."

however, smeaton suggests it would be a mistake to use the pictures to push for legislation at this time, since the british parliament is not pro-life.


"it is essential that legislative proposals aimed at changing the abortion law are not put to parliament in this, the most anti-life parliament in history, because we are certain that a majority of mps would vote to make abortion even more widely available," smeaton said.


The 3-d ultrasound images have been compiled in a book called, "watch me grow."

campbell's work demonstrates that an unborn baby engages in complex behavior from an early stage in development.


The images show that, from 18 weeks, unborn babies can open their eyes and from 26 weeks, they can scratch, smile, cry, hiccup, and suck.


Until recently, a number of medical professionals thought that smiling could not occur until six weeks after birth.


In addition to captivating parents, the detailed 3-d images could provide a powerful weapon in the legal fight against abortion.


For years, pro-abortion forces have claimed that the unborn child is not a person, and therefore is not entitled to legal rights.


By demonstrating that unborn children can engage in complicated human behavior long before birth, the new technology could be used to demonstrate that laws permitting abortion are inhumane, according to pro-life activists.