Can abortion be looked upon as murder?

I do not believe in the religious diktats in this respect. Nevertheless, abortion is an act of killing that can of course be justified in certain specific cirstances, while totally unjustified in other cirstances. Murder is the wrong word, because it creates fixed notions in our minds since the term is a legal one. I believe that life is life, no matter how underdeveloped it might be as yet, so long as we know that in the normal cirstances, it is meant to develop into the full fledged living being.