Life Begins At Conception

As I gather information and continue to educate myself about the horrors of abortion, I can't help but wonder how we as a society have been duped into believing that life does not begin at conception. I've tried to wrap my mind around the thinking of individuals who state that in the beginning (the early stages of pregnancy) a baby is not a baby and what's growing inside of the mother at this embryonic stage are "just cells", a "blob of tissue", or a "lump of flesh." My question is if it's not a baby, how is it a baby nine months later? Did we add anything to the "blob of tissue" to get a different result nine months later? I don't think so. If we have a baby nine months later, we have a baby at the moment of conception. AJK