Pro-Life Group Hands Child Toy Fetus At LI Community Event

A Northport mother says she was unhappy to learn that a member of a local pro-life group gave her 7-year-old daughter a toy fetus at Cow Harbor Day.

Jennifer Chambers told Patch her husband and daughter were walking around the many vendors and tents at Cow Harbor Day on Sunday, Sept. 16 when someone from St. Philip Neri Church in Northport gave her daughter the toy.

The family-oriented event offers many vendors, live music and amusements along Northport Harbor following a parade to celebrate the history of Northport.

Chambers, however, feels the small toy fetus along with pro-life information given to her young daughter was anything but family-friendly. "As my daughter passed the table, [a woman] handed it to her with the paper," she told Patch. The child never approached the table, Chambers said.

The object, small enough to easily fit in a person’s hand, depicts what a fetus would look like at 11 to 14 weeks old. It was very similar to the toy fetus for purchase on the Heritage House ‘76 website, which sells various pro-life items, as seen above.

Chambers says the toys were inappropriate and should not be handed out at Cow Harbor Day.

“It’s very manipulative to give that to a child as a doll,” Chambers says, adding her husband took the object away, but that didn’t stop their child from asking questions.

“She is a child and I do talk to about issues with her, but you do have to draw the line somewhere,” she says. “Pro-life and pro-choice is where I draw it.”

Jackie D’Ambrosio, administrative assistant at St. Philip Neri Church, told Patch that “maybe the parent should have been paying more attention to what the child grabbed.”

According to D’Ambrosio, the materials and literature that were handed out at Cow Harbor Day are not child-friendly.

"I'm sure there are other things at Cow Harbor Day that are not meant for children,” she told Patch.

The St. Philip Neri Church Respect Life group, along with all churches across Long Island, receives its pro-life materials from the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Allison O’Brien, the director of the Respect Life Office at the Diocese, told Patch they do not give out toy fetuses, and the Northport church may have gotten the item elsewhere.

D’Ambrosio could not confirm where the fetus item was purchased, or whether the member of the Respect Life group intentionally gave Chambers' child the toy.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Does Chambers have the right to be upset? Does St. Philip Neri have the right to hand out this material at a family event? Sound off in the comments below!

Image courtesy Heritage House '76