Texas Valedictorian Swaps Approved Speech for One Condemning Restrictive Abortion Law

The valedictorian at a Texas high school switched out the speech her teachers had approved for one inveighing against Texas’ new restrictive law on abortion, a so-called “heartbeat bill” that bans the procedure as early as six weeks. Paxton Smith, who took the top honor at Lake Highlands High School, said Sunday, “I have dreams, hopes, and ambitions. Every girl here does. We have spent our whole lives working towards our futures, and without our consent or input, our control over our futures has been stripped away from us. I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if I’m raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant. I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.” She told the Lake Highlands Advocate of her reasoning for the stunt: “I thought about making the speech at a different venue, like a rally where people wouldn’t be upset at what I had to say. But a large part of the reason I made the speech at graduation was that was the only place I could think of where I could reach so many people from so many different backgrounds.”