Paxton Smith originally planned to talk about television and the media – and that’s the topic district administrators signed off on – but events in Austin changed her mind.
DALLAS — Paxton Smith pulled the folded-up piece of paper from underneath her red graduation robe. It wasn’t the valedictorian speech she originally prepared, the one that was approved by administrators at Lake Highlands High School. Instead, she decided to use her three minutes on stage to decry the so-called heartbeat bill, legislation signed recently by Gov. Greg Abbott that will essentially ban most abortions in Texas. It felt wrong, she said, to talk about anything else. “I have dreams and hopes and ambitions. Every girl graduating today does,” she told her fellow graduates and their families Sunday. “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 from us.” The legislation she spoke out against would ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women know they’re pregnant — and allow any private citizen to sue abortion providers who violate the restriction.
