{"id":246421,"date":"2021-06-04T15:31:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T20:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=246421"},"modified":"2021-06-06T22:25:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T03:25:51","slug":"texas-valedictorian-abortion-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/texas-valedictorian-abortion-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas high school valedictorian: Protecting preborn babies is a ‘war on my body’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Texas high school valedictorian decided to toss her approved speech<\/a> on Sunday in favor of a new one attacking a state pro-life law, earning praise from pro-abortion celebrities and politicians.<\/p>\n

Paxton Smith, who graduated at the top of her class at Lake Highlands High School, was originally set to speak about the media, and “how much of it she consumes and how that consumption has shaped the way she sees the world,” according to D Magazine<\/a>. This large amount of media consumption — which can often have a heavy pro-abortion bias<\/a> — might explain the reason she instead decided to attack Texas’ “heartbeat bill”<\/a> in her speech \u2014\u00a0a bill that bans abortion once a heartbeat can be detected in a preborn human being. This is\u00a0usually by about six weeks, though the heart actually begins beating between 16 and 21 days after fertilization.<\/p>\n

Smith, by her own admission, has been influenced by this one-sided, inaccurate reporting. She said:<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

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. I hope that you can feel how gut-wrenching that is. I hope you can feel how dehumanizing it is to have the autonomy over your own body taken away from you.<\/em><\/p>\n

I cannot give up this platform to promote complacency and peace when there is a war on my body and a war on my rights. A war on the rights of your mothers. A war on the rights of your sisters. A war on the rights of your daughters. We cannot stay silent.<\/em><\/p>\n

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