Texas Valedictorian Switched Approved Graduation Speech to Address Abortion Rights

High school graduation is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. One Class of 2021 valedictorian from Dallas understood that and took full advantage of her opportunity to address a stadium of her peers. 18-year-old Paxton Smith ditched her approved valedictorian speech and instead, spent her three minutes at the podium expressing her stance on abortion rights — taking aim specifically at the anti-abortion bill that Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law on May 19.

According to The Texas Tribune, the law, set to go into effect this September, would prohibit abortions as early as six weeks, or about two weeks after a missed, “regular” menstrual cycle — which many people's cycles are not. At six weeks, many people don't yet know they are pregnant. Not only would the law ban nearly all abortions, it also allows anyone to sue Texas healthcare workers and anyone else who may have helped a pregnant person obtain an abortion for as much as $10,000. Texas currently bans abortion after about 20 weeks in most cases. Other states have attempted to ban abortion after six weeks, but none of those laws are in effect. (Some call these “heartbeat” bills, in reference to when a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Planned Parenthood notes this has no basis in medical reality.)

Paxton Smith, the valedictorian of Lake Highlands High School with her 104.93 average, was originally set and approved by school officials to deliver a speech on how media consumption has shaped her worldview.

But when Gov. Abbott signed the anti-abortion bill into law 11 days before her graduation, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“When the heartbeat bill was passed, I was very, very upset,” Smith tells Teen Vogue. “I was in the band hall, and I was trying to write an essay for a psychology project that was due. And I couldn't focus because I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the heartbeat bill and how upset it made me. And so I decided to start writing out some of those thoughts on my Google Doc, and I think it was then that I realized that that was what I should talk about [at graduation].”

Smith’s original speech took her about two weeks to write. This new one only took her two days. The only people who knew about her plan to switch speeches at graduation were her parents, Smith says, because she didn't want any of her friends to potentially share the plan and tip off the school district.

In the video of Smith’s speech, she is clearly nervous as she steps up to the microphone, her voice shaking as she thanks the teacher who introduced her. Then, she pulls her new speech from her gown.

“As we leave high school, we need to make our voices heard,” she begins her speech. She continues by breaking down the details and restrictions of the anti-abortion bill for the audience, her voice growing stronger with each sentence. “I have dreams and hopes and ambitions. Every girl graduating today 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 from us.”

“I fully expected for things to go very poorly,” Smith says. “I thought that the microphone would get cut off close to the beginning of my speech, and I thought that I would get a lot of angry comments afterwards.” But surprisingly, Smith says the community response has been “overwhelmingly positive.” Beyond her community, the video of her speech has been reposted and shared on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, amassing views in the millions — even former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke tweeted their support of Smith’s speech.

In the past, multiple high schools have cut the microphones of valedictorians who have swayed from their approved scripts. Smith says that was the only risk she was nervous about before delivering her speech — and so far, she hasn’t faced any further repercussions from the school administration.

“They told me they were considering withholding my diploma after I made the speech, and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot.’” But Smith did receive her diploma, and plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. But the Richardson Independent School District’s school board president, Karen Clardy, told local outlet Advocate Magazine that Smith’s switch was “unexpected and not supported by Lake Highlands High School or RISD.”

"We are going to review student speech protocols in advance of next year’s graduations to prevent something like this from happening again,” said Clardy. The Richardson Independent School District also released a statement which points to a disclaimer about student speeches that appears as part of each RISD graduation program.

Teen Vogue has reached out to the school district and will update this story upon hearing back.

Smith says that she’s always been passionate about reproductive rights, but wouldn’t necessarily label herself an activist — yet. It’s something she’s interested in exploring, especially considering the viral impact her speech has made over the last few days.

“I think [the speech] has definitely opened up a lot of conversations about the topic for a lot of people,” she says. “And it's brought the issue of abortion to front and stage within the public. I hope that it's made people think about the issue and realize the situation that we're in at this point in time, because it's a really big deal. I hope that's what it's done — opened people's eyes to see what's going on in our country right now. And [I hope] that it brings them to learn more about it and use their voice to talk about how it's not okay.”

And while she was too young to vote during the last election cycle, Smith plans to participate in her future elections, and hopes others do, too. “Everyone should have an opinion about the issue. And they should take it upon ourselves to learn more about what's happening in the United States right now, with the passing of a lot more restrictive abortion laws all over the country. They should use their voices to, at the very minimum, vote [in] their local and state elections, because those are the ones that are going to have the most impact over this issue.”

You can watch Smith’s full valedictorian speech here, and read the full transcript here.

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue