I'm writing to anticipate what I'm sure will be a number of angry letters about Tradition, Family and Property's abortion protest downtown on Sept. 11.

As for why they chose that day, I'm not sure.

Perhaps it's a day when more people than usual will be inclined to think seriously about issues of life and death. It might also remind Americans that Sept. 11, simply in the raw numbers of loss of human life, is nowhere near the number of lives lost to abortion (or for that matter, the Iraq war).

In any case, the day would probably be better suited to distributing leaflets rather than a display which so many people will find offensive.

But Students for Life had no control over this event.

On the other hand, TFP brings up an issue of tremendous gravity, which I would hate to see buried under a flurry of protestations of "how dare they do this on Sept. 11!"

A fetus is not part of the mother's body. He or she is a unique human individual, dependent on the mother, yet possessing all the integrity and dignity of a person. Therefore, they merit legal protection from deadly attack, just as much as the targets of terrorism merit legal protection from deadly attack.