For Texas Teen Paxton Smith, Staying Silent About the Controversial Heartbeat Bill Was Not an Option
A few weeks ago, as Paxton Smith, a then-senior at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, was working on her psychology assignment in the band hall at school, she found she couldn't concentrate. "I just kept on thinking about how upset I was about the heartbeat bill," she said.
Last month, Texas governor, Greg Abbot, signed into law Senate Bill 8, AKA the "heartbeat bill," which bans abortion after the detection of a fetal hearbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into the pregnancy. While the bill does make exceptions "if a physician believes a medical emergency exists," that does not extend to pregnancies that are the product of rape or incest.
The bill has received a lot of backlash since it was signed into law. Elisabeth Smith, chief counsel for state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, has already told the Texas Tribune that they plan to challenge the ban. These advocates will no doubt get support from from young Texan women like Paxton. "I think that the bill is just unacceptable," she told Seventeen. "It's very concerning for me because it takes away my ability to choose over my body. What happens if I do get pregnant?"
Paxton was so overwhelmed with feelings about the bill that she decided to set her psychology assignment aside for a minute and instead put some of her thoughts on paper. The result would go viral.
Last Sunday, as the Lake Highlands class of 2021 accepted their diplomas, Paxton was set to take the stage at graduation and give a commencement speech as the class' valedictorian. Her original plan was to read a pre-approved speech about media creating unrealistic expectations, which was ready to go in a binder on stage. Once Paxton reached the podium, however, she pulled a piece of paper out of her bra. "As we leave high school, we need to make our voices heard," she began, reading the words she wrote down in the band hall just a few weeks ago. "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."
Paxton then jumped into her speech where she criticized the heartbeat bill and expressed her own fears about her body now that the law is in place. She also explained why everyone in the room and in the state should be concerned. "I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail, I am terrified that if I am raped, then my hopes and aspirations and dreams and efforts for my future will no longer matter," she said. "I hope that you can feel how gut-wrenching that is, I hope that you can feel how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you."
In the days leading up to the graduation, Paxton was nervous. "I was just absolutely dreading giving the speech," she said, explaining that she thought people would be upset with her and she may even lose some friends over it. She asked herself, "when else could I talk about this?" She thought about giving it at a pro-choice rally or perhaps posting it online, but she didn't think it would have the same effect.
"All I could think of were platforms where people already agree with me," she explained. "Like at a rally. People already have the same opinion as you. On TikTok, you're going to show up on peoples' 'For You Page' where they already agree with you." So, Paxton felt her graduation was the best option and the biggest risk would be saying nothing at all, no matter the consequences. "I wanted to reach as many people as possible who were either neutral on the subject or flat out disagreed with me."
Paxton couldn’t have imagined the response that would come. A video of Paxton's speech, which was posted to YouTube now has over 400,000 views. A TikTok with a clip from the speech has almost 80,000 likes. And she hasn't lost a single friend.
"I thought the speech was going to go incredibly poorly," she said. "So, this has all come as quite a surprise to me."
Paxton heard a rumor from a family friend that her microphone would get cut off at graduation if she went off script. That didn’t happen, and she was able to finish her whole three-minute speech. But, upon walking off the stage, a graduation organizer told her the school was considering withholding her diploma. Luckily, her name was called right on cue and she was the first of her class to graduate.
Since her speech went viral, Paxton says she has heard from so many people who have messaged her. "People have just been saying, 'Thank you, that took a lot of courage. That took a lot of bravery. Thank you for giving women a voice and for using you platform to do what's right,'" Paxton recalled
As for what she has learned from this whole experience, Paxton says you should never count yourself out. "Anything can happen," she said. "When I made this speech, I didn't think it was going to go anywhere and I certainly didn't know its impact was going to be this big, but this is a big issue and people have been waiting to hear a strong voice on it."
Now, Paxton is working on encouraging others to use their voice as well. "Vote in your state elections and start some conversations with people about this," she said. Paxton started the dialogue, but the conversation won’t end with her.
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