CNN’s Victor Blackwell said that a Texas high school valedictorian who swapped out her approved graduation speech to criticize Texas’ new bill on abortion “didn’t feel political.”
The valedictorian, Paxton Smith, went viral for her graduation speech. She even drew the attention of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“This took guts,” Clinton said on Twitter. “Thank you for not staying silent, Paxton.” (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Praises Teen Who Secretly Switched Valedictorian Speech To Bash Texas Abortion Law)
This took guts. Thank you for not staying silent, Paxton. https://t.co/DlwEgmMRGN
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 2, 2021
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the heartbeat bill into law in May, effectively banning all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected – as early as six weeks. Advocates praised the law as protecting the life of the unborn, but opponents of the bill argued that it was too restrictive especially given that many women don’t yet know they are pregnant at six weeks.
In her speech, Smith slammed the new law and claimed it was overly restrictive and infringed on women’s rights.
“Six weeks – that’s all women get,” she said. “Most of them don’t realize they are pregnant by six weeks.”
“Before they have a chance to decide if they are emotionally, physically and financially stable enough to … take on the responsibility of bringing another human being into the world, that decision is made for them by a stranger.”
“A decision that will affect them for the rest of their lives is made by a stranger,” she added.”Without our input, and without our consent, our control over that future has been stripped away from us.”
Smith told CNN that she decided to speak out on the issue to reach people who may not agree with her or who may be neutral on the issue of abortion.
“I felt like reproductive rights were so important and right now they are currently under attack from so many different states … and I felt like it was crucial that I used my platform to reach people who were neutral about the topic or simply didn’t agree with me about the topic to spread the message this was not okay,” she said.
Smith said that she only told her parents about her plans, and while they are apprehensive at first, they supported her idea to swap her speech. She told CNN that she plans to study music after high school but is not ruling out political activism in the future.