Jason Jones, founder of HERO (Humanitarian-Rights Education and Relief Organization).

Jason Jones was 16 and his girlfriend “Shawna” was 15 when she became pregnant. They were wild and foolish, he said, and naïvely believed that they could get married and live happily ever after. 

He joined the Army soon as he turned 17, intending to marry her after basic training. But she called him at boot camp, sobbing. Her father, a prominent Catholic in their Chicago community, was on the extension phone. “I took Shawna for an abortion,” he said. It was six months into the pregnancy. 

Jones wasn’t permitted to use that phone, and when the sergeant reached to hang it up, Jones punched him and ended up in front of a sympathetic captain, who gave him a roll of quarters to call her back on a pay phone. It was the first of many violent incidents, and Jones had no idea that the pattern of angry explosions was rooted in the loss of his daughter. 

Now 40, Jones is an outspoken humanitarian in support of human rights and the dignity of all human life. He is the founder of HERO (Humanitarian-Rights Education and Relief Organization) and a speaker with the organization, I Am Whole Life. He raised the funding to produce the pro-life movie “Bella,” and founded the Bella HERO Program that donates the movie to pregnancy crisis centers.