US student speech calling for reproductive rights goes viral

Paxton Smith veered off her approved graduation text to denounce a new Texas bill that bans abortions as early as six weeks.

American student Paxton Smith scrapped a graduation speech approved by her school administrators and delivered instead an abortion rights call in a message that has since gone viral on social media. Smith, the 2021 valedictorian at Lake Highlands High School in the US state of Texas, submitted to school officials a speech on the effect of the media on young minds. But when she spoke during the graduation ceremony on Sunday, she instead addressed what she called “a war on the rights” of her body and those of other girls and women by the “heartbeat bill”, signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott late last month.