This WWE Wrestler Was Conceived in Rape, Glad He Wasn’t Aborted

Recently, a local news outlet, The Tampa Tribune, featured a piece on WWE wrestlers Thaddeus Bullard, known to fans as Titus O’Neil, and Leati Joseph Anoa’i, known as Roman Reigns.

While the source is not necessarily pro-life, it did mention how the two men rose above their circumstances to promote fatherhood, which they did with an ad for Father’s Day with the Ad Council for public service announcement. This is certainly not the only way in which the two men have promoted fatherhood, and throughout the piece it is reiterated throughout that these men see themselves as fathers first.

Bullard (right) was conceived when his mother was raped by her grandmother’s boyfriend at just 11 years of age. The piece mentions that although an abortion was pushed on her, she refused and still raised her son. Bullard says that he and his mom are “close” and that “[s]he did a lot for [him].”

Anoa’i whose father was also a wrestler for WWE, was not conceived through rape as Bullard was, but still mentions about the relationship with this father  that they “didn’t have the greatest relationship when [he] was growing up.”

And yet it seems that the two men did not let their situations with their fathers (Bullard never met his) get them down. Rather, one might say that they have become better fathers, and men, for it. Also highlighted, and promoted, is the necessity of a child having a positive father figure in his or her life. As The Tampa Tribune says about Bullard:

As a boy, he was quick to fight if someone looked at him the wrong way. It took five years at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch in Live Oak to set him straight.

“I think a lot of it was because I didn’t have that strong male role model in my life,” he said. “That’s important. So at an early age I knew if I had children that I would be in my kids’ life no matter what so they never had to deal with any of the issues I had to as a youth.”

While the piece neither argues for or against abortion in cases of rape, or in general, with such a glimpse into the lives of these men, particularly when it comes to how they view the importance of fatherhood, one can surely say that the world would be missing out if Thaddeus Bullard had not been born. This is because WWE would be without Titus O’Neil, but also because his two sons would be without a father.

It is certainly refreshing to see a local news source talk about and promote the importance of fatherhood, especially with regards to those who want to do better for their children from what they themselves had.