Texas valedictorian ditches pre-approved speech to slam abortion law

Paxton Smith, the 2021 valedictorian at Lake Highlands High School in Texas, tells CNN’s Victor Blackwell why she decided to toss her approved speech at the last minute to speak out against a new Texas law that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks. #CNN #News

97 comments

    1. @Kim g Tourettes typically is accompanied with vocal expletives or hand gestures. I didn’t see any bad words associated with his comment.

    2. @R Leon it can be words or sounds it’s not always bad words it’s just blurting out words or having physical ticks that are not intended. Kind of like just saying trump randomly in a comment thread. But just in case you missed it I was being sarcastic

    3. @Kim g she’s so smart she doesn’t realize keeping her legs closed doesn’t make babies. 👌

  1. That’s F-ed up……if a person like Matt taps on a minor in Texas and she gets pregnant…..too bad, so sad!!

    1. I’d be willing to bet that if any one of these “prolife” republicans got their mistress or underage girlfriend pregnant they’d be the first to say get rid of it. It makes me sick that they use abortion, just as they use guns, as a tool to get votes.

    2. No. He’d just fly her to where abortion is legal and get it done there. Antiabortion laws typically negatively affect low income and lower.

  2. Ted Cruz would support her message… He said people’s health should not be dictated by others.

    Oh, that was only about masks…

    1. @Trevor Cron, you do agree that only the Texas green energy power industry had issues right? And not the fossil fuel plants?

    2. yeah, peoples health shouldnt be dictated by others. especially if it includes being murdered in the womb or not.

      I know you think you had a cute ‘gotcha’ there, but you really didn’t.

    3. @Trevor Cron, I’ve adopted two great kids and I can tell you there is nothing in that long and grueling process that prooves to the government your intentions for the child. The only relevant concerns is your health, available time, finances, and criminal background which can all be checked in an afternoon.

      More than that, I like the child’s chances better in a permanent home vs. the alternatives of death or foster care (which is invested with child abuse). But that’s just one man’s opinion.

  3. Conservatives during Covid-The people don’t need to be told what to do with their lives!
    Also them:

    1. @Muhammad the Prophet being consistent would be considering all relevant information and not just what fits the narrative you’re trying to present. There are always two or more lives involved. And I’m sorry but that was a cop-out to get out of answering those difficult questions. The Unborn child’s life matters more than the girl’s life to you, if you’re not even considering her.

    2. @Muhammad the Prophet You just completely invalidated your own point. No further debate necessary since you just have shown that YOU give 0 fucks about the possible mother. But i guess that goes to show with your account name… fits the view of that specific religion all too well. **mic drop**

    3. @A Place not people. They cannot survive outside of their mothers womb. That’s is not the definition of a person. It might be alive but not a person. Not an individual with character. Definitely can’t own property.

    4. @Muhammad the Prophet Except it’s not murder because of the way you feel. It’s not scientifically back up by fact. It’s how you feel. Which should never dictate what somebody else can or cannot do with their own body. Again, how is that better than the rapist violating the girl? You talk of morals and principles but you won’t consider it the other life in the equation. You want to impose your will on her body but won’t consider her. How is that, in any way, moralistic or principled?

    5. @Gavin Beard refer to the initial comment under which COVID-19 was the topic stupid 🙄. It’s at the top of the page!

  4. This is representative of the new wave of voters. Either listen to them, or be voted out.

    1. @Gavul the ability to survive without being tethered to another human and able to respirate and get nutritional needs met outside of a placenta

    2. @Gavul if it is selfish for a woman to not want to give birth then what kind of parent would she be. if she knows she is not emotionally physically or financially prepared to care for an actual child why wouldn’t you consider what kind of life a child would be born into. So you are not okay with aborting a fetus but okay with the potential for neglect and abuse from a person who is forced to cate for something they do not want

    3. @Kim g so just because that life depends on the mother means that it’s ok to kill it out of convenience? plenty of disabled people or people in a coma or brain dead people rely on other humans for life so is it ok to kill them?

    4. @Gavul no those people rely on machines they do not need a human to provide nourishment only administer it. They don’t reside in a womb they reside in a bed. If you could do all that in a facility with a fetus then i might concede it should have the rights of personhood but if it’s in a body of an actual living thriving person then the human who possesses said womb should have the choice as to whether or not she wants to bring a fetus to fruition as a person . Why is it mostly men folks who likely need a map to figure out there way around lady parts always have the most to say about what we should do with them?

  5. That was amazing!! The government laws all need revised! I can’t believe America has dealt with this as long as they have!

    1. yes, starting with ones that prevent the murder of innocent children just because the persons responsible for their creation don’t want to take responsibility for their bad choices. Oh wait, that’s what she and you are whining about. It’s so awful when someone says you can’t take someone else’s life.

    2. @R S it’s a right to the baby’s body. The woman can do whatever the f**k she wants to her body

    3. I know, right? We should have made the murder of innocent humans in the womb legal decades ago! Right?

    4. @james swinth DEMOCRATS
      Save the turtles – KILL THE BABIES
      Save the trees – KILL THE BABIES
      Save the whales – KILL THE BABIES
      Save the Planet – KILL THE BABIES
      A party of psychopaths.

  6. I live not too far from where this high school (Lake highlands). Thankfully, it leans heavily democratic, pro-choice, and is a highly educated neighborhood of Dallas.

  7. What a brave girl! Kudos to her! She’s a smart, young woman with a good head on her shoulders! Her parents must be very proud!🤗

    1. @Isaac Walker your morals are in the ditch. Look, you cannot back up your bs as you have ignored many of these scenarios posed to you i.e. you believing it to be okay for a woman to carry about a foetus that was the product of rape and, when the woman has given birth that child would likely be living an awful life in the system, alone, scared and hungry wishing for a family. This is all okay to you? You expect a woman to raise a child that was forced onto her without her choosing to do so via rape? You sir need to sit tf down and shut tf up.

    2. @Isaac Walker More than you do, apparently. I believe that all men should be required to get vasectomies to stop all abortions. Would you be willing to support and do that? Because all the other solutions you’ve provided are very poor by comparison.

  8. Pro-life should also include providing free health insurance for the mother and child up to age 18 and financial support. Otherwise provide better sex education and free birth control to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Keep religious views out and keep common sense in.

    1. @Kelly Ruliva No, teaching self control is great – Teach young people to have the self control to have safe, healthy, fully-consented-to sex when they are ready.

    2. Here’s a compromise: if the woman has the right to choose to terminate the baby then the man should have the right to abandon the baby without having to pay child support.

    3. @Stoner Joe exactly. If you force me to have keep the baby and not do an abortion then you get the baby. You deal with an unwanted pregnancy. After all it’s your child too. So look if you feel like you can force a woman to have a child them I’m gonna force you to have one too. And not to start on the scientific side that the fetus is not even a baby until 24 weeks. A fetus is not viable until 24 weeks. That means it’s not a human, it wouldn’t survive outside of a mothers body. Doctors would let the baby die if it was under 24 weeks. So yeah until then the abortion should be legal. After the 24th week, at least here you can’t get an abortion unless it’s medically necessary.

    4. Simple bacteria on a foreign planet is classified as life but a woman’s fertilized egg is not considered life on Earth. Go figure.

    5. @Stoner Joe well it’s not. Scientifically it’s not. Even philosophically it’s not. Go do some research. And yes bacteria on another planet is classified as life because it can live independently and on its own while a baby under 24 weeks can not that’s why it’s not considered viable.

    1. @Ginger Licious you are so incorrect. There are two genders directly associated with sex. Male and female. Facts.

    1. @KD unborn baby is commonly used idk wtf you’re talking about, women only carry their offspring, their babies, their children

    2. @valerie how does that affect logic, reason and biology? Do male doctors not understand female biology? That sounds sexist to me 🙂

    3. So much BS here about genocide and murder! Less than 8% of all abortions occur after first trimester (13 weeks). Check the CDC stats. This also shows that women have been using their abortion right very responsibly and not wantonly running around killing so called babies.
      The CDC stats also show that more than 60% of women who had abortion have had at least one live birth before. This shows that they are already well aware of what it takes to care for an actual child. Less than 1% of abortion occur after 24 weeks. That’s pretty much also the cutoff for when science can save a preemie. So all this talk of women murdering preemies is pure nonsense, projection of moral superiority or just an excuse to control and be cruel to women. It’s *her* body and she is a living breathing human which trumps any rights a clump of cells should have.

    4. @Cobe Streets It’s not a baby, it’s a fetus. Heart cells ‘beat’ in a petri dish when they’re outside of the body. You profess to care for babies, but you’re actually parroting bad science at the expense of real human women.

  9. I’m a little surprised school admin didn’t cut off her mic like other graduation speakers have experienced.
    CONSIDERING WITHHOLDING HER DIPLOMA?! I would’ve sued! What legal grounds would the school have to do that?

    1. They don’t have one, hard to claim the valedictorian was missing a class. 🙄❤😊😂

    2. EWTN Pro-Life Weekly: On a mission to report the truth.
      Overturn Roe v Wade with New Pro-Life Act
      862,320 abortions in just 2020

  10. Hard to imagine this is actually a discussion topic in 2021 in America. What a backwoods second world country. 🤮

    1. @LoganBluth no, sperm and eggs are made daily and die daily. Life begins when the two meet not just because they exist.

    2. @Brian Loveless Ummm…., women ovulate roughly *once a month.* Do you actually know ANYTHING about biology or do you just parrot the same old mindless talking points without thinking?

      Also, you literally said sperm and eggs “DIE”, so even your own terminology suggests you think of them as “life”. And by what evidence do you make this claim that conception is the official start of “life”? What are you basing this belief upon…?

    3. @LoganBluth when a sperm and an egg meet a process starts and unless something natural or an act of murder (abortion) stop it then in every instance you get a functioning human being. There is no chance as you call the person (a lump of cells) being anything else. So when a person decides to get an abortion they know for a fact that they are stopping a human life. (MURDER!)

  11. Gop:”gun laws don’t stop people from using guns to kill innocents”
    Gop: “ let’s use laws to stop abortions and border crossings!”

    1. @Mike how about, when you grow a fetus, you’re opinion will matter. Currently, your opinion doesn’t matter. And understand, a fetus IS not a child nor a baby. Laws will NOT reduce the number of abortions. It WILL reduce the number of SAFE abortions. Why do conservatives HATE women so much?

    2. @valerie ????? Science defines it as potential life that has a heartbeat as early as 6/12 weeks thus why most states limit aborting’s to six weeks. Even this selfish spoiled brat who decided to use a venue meant for everyone to talk about her own believes understands this as she was complaining that she had 6 weeks to have an abortion.

    3. @Mike so making a law stops abortion or makes it more unsafe? Also why not make laws to ban sex for all people unless they want to have baby. That makes more sense

  12. If even half of the politicians who pretend to speak for us had the courage and moral character Paxton does, the world would be a much better place.

  13. HUGE RESPECT for this speech! Only the person who bares the child in the womb can decide for abortion or not, no one else!!! Greetings from a 31 year old Belgian guy!

    1. Funny, the people championing in utero murder are never in danger of being murdered themselves. 🤔

      Who speaks for the truly helpless and politically powerless child? Not you! 😜

    2. Great, another person who supports murder. Sad, where did your morals go if you have any?

    3. I agree! Though if the mother has the baby against the fathers wishes, she should not be eligible for child support. But I do agree the choice to have the baby should be 100% the mothers.

    4. ​@Tommy Thompson – @”Great, another person who supports murder. Sad, where did your morals go if you have any?” – Noone is telling the fetus that it can’t be born. It just can’t be housed in the mother against her will. Once the fetus is aborted, it should be placed in a jar where it is fully within its rights to proceed to becoming a baby on its own.

  14. If you don’t approve of abortion, don’t have one.
    Personally, I think a woman’s right to abortion extends up to when the foetus finishes school leaves home and gets a proper job.

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