Culture

This Texan Student Used Her Valedictorian Speech To Slam Abortion Laws, And Everyone’s Obsessed

"I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail, I am terrified that if I am raped, then my hopes and ambitions and dreams and efforts for my future will no longer matter," Paxton said after switching out her pre-approved speech.

by Michelle Rennex  4 June 2021
paxton smith valedictorian speech abortion texas

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A Texan student has been praised online for her decision to bin her pre-approved valedictorian speech and instead use the opportunity to slam her states horrific new abortion laws.

Paxton Smith was named dux of Lake Highlands High School in Texas, and was given the opportunity to speak in front of her peers because of her achievements.But after initially following school policy by submitting a speech for pre-approval, Paxton went rogue on her graduation day.

Making a last-minute switch, Paxton decided to use her platform to tear into Texas’ new controlling “heartbeat bill” instead of giving her planned speech on TV, media and content.

The heartbeat bill is said to be one of the strictest abortion measures in the US, and essentially works to ban women from having abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected. Unfortunately, this can be as early as six weeks and doesn’t even make an exception for cases of rape and incest.

For context, there’s no set “time frame” that women find out they’re pregnant. For some, it’s a few weeks and for others it’s a few months. This means that some women will be forced to have a child because by the time they realise they’re pregnant, it’s too late to abort.

While this isn’t the first heartbeat bill the US has seen, Texas has made one big change that allows the law to be enforceable by the public instead of the government. This means that angry pro-lifers can sue abortion clinics and anyone else who helps a women terminate a pregnancy.

So basically, it’s all pretty fucked — and this is why Paxton Smith couldn’t sit idly by while the new controlling laws unfolded around her.

“As we leave high school, we need to make our voices heard,” Paxton opened, going off-script from her original pre-approved valedictorian speech. “Under light of recent events it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state.”

In the now-viral speech, Paxton explains that the heartbeat bill is wildly unfair to women who may not be “emotionally, physically and financially stable enough to carry out a full-term pregnancy”.

“Six weeks. That’s all women get,” Paxton started. “And so before they realise, most of them don’t realise they’re pregnant by six weeks.”

“Before they have the chance to decide if they can take on the responsibility of bringing another human being into the world, that decision is made for them by a stranger,” Paxton passionately continued. “A decision that will affect the rest of their lives is made by a stranger.”

From here Paxton Smith noted that taking away a woman’s consent to choose is not only dehumanising, but also essentially strips away any possibility of a future once planned for.

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“I have dreams and hopes and ambitions. Every girl graduating todays does, and we have spent our entire lives working towards our future, and without our input and without our consent our control over that future has been stripped away,” Paxton said as the audience began to cheer.

“I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail, I am terrified that if I am raped, then my hopes and ambitions and dreams and efforts for my future will no longer matter,” the valedictorian continued. “I hope you can feel how dehumanising it is to have the autonomy over your own body taken away from you.”

“I can not give up this platform to promote complacency and peace where there is a war on my body and a war on my rights, a war on the rights of your mothers, a war on the rights of your sisters, a war on the rights of your daughters,” Paxton concluded. “We cannot stay silent.”

After being uploaded to TikTok and shared to Twitter, people couldn’t help but praise Paxton Smith for being brave enough to put herself — and her diploma, as reported by BuzzFeed — at risk to speak out for those who matter.

Now if only Texan leaders could have a backbone half as strong as Paxton Smith’s for once in their lives.

You can catch Paxton’s entire speech here.