(SNR) – A pro-life group bestowed upon President Donald Trump an award for his efforts to advance anti-abortion efforts.
The bronze award was created by Nebraska artist Sondra L. Jonson of St. John the Baptist Parish in Cambridge.
The Hosea Initiative for Life, which strives to “restore and unify America to a life-welcoming culture ready to help and support all conceived children and their parents,” officially awarded President Donald Trump their first Bernard N. Nathanson, MD “Courageous Witness for Life” Award at their gala in Washington, D.C. Dec. 8.
Dr. Nathanson was an abortionist and founded the National Abortion Rights Action League in 1969, but later became an outspoken pro-life activist and converted to Catholicism.
Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, accepted the award on behalf of the president, conveying the president’s “great appreciation” for the award and for “the courage that each one of you has manifested.”
At the gala, founder and president of Hosea Initiative Terry Beatley said President Trump was receiving the award because he had the “courage” to stand for “the right thing.”
While Trump formerly described himself as pro-choice, in January 2018 he became the first sitting U.S. president to address the annual March for Life. His administration has a record of achieving pro-life goals such as withdrawing Title Ten funds from clinics that perform abortions, ending funding of aborted fetal tissue research, opposing UN funding of organizations that support abortion and sterilization in China, and reinstating the Mexico City Policy which prohibits U.S. foreign aid funding abortion centers in foreign countries.
In 2016, Jonson was given a copy of Terry Beatley’s book “What if We’ve Been Wrong?” Jonson said she was so impressed with the book that she contacted Beatley and ordered a case of the books to give away. As they planned their celebration and fundraising gala for 2019, the Hosea board of directors contacted Jonson to commission the group’s “Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson Courageous Witness for Life” Award, whose first recipient would be President Donald J. Trump.
Jonson was challenged to create a bronze award that would be artistic, compelling, and communicative of Hosea’s mission, while including Dr. Nathanson’s parting words to Beatley: “Love one another. Abortion is not love. Stop the killing. The world needs more love.”
Inspired by Dr. Nathanson’s books “The Hand of God” and “Aborting America,” Jonson said she crafted her design to juxtapose the reality of new life in the womb of an expectant mother, against the silhouette of the United States of America with all its conflict, crisis and concern. A spray of flowering buttercups arches over the mother and Dr. Nathanson’s words, uniting the welfare of the nation with the welfare of each new life.
Jonson said it was a great honor to create the award to epitomize the bold and life-saving work of the Hosea Initiative for Life. She was in D.C. for the award presentation, along with her artist son Joseph McHale, member of St. James Parish in Kearney. In her Nebraska studio, Jonson is now working on more pro-life artworks – a pro-life wall mosaic, and the life-size sculpture of “A Father’s Tears.”
