Hillary Clinton applauds valedictorian who switched her approved speech to a rallying cry on abortion rights

The student said she had no regrets about using her time to give her alternate speech

Paxton Smith, the valedictorian of Lake Highlands High School in Texas, gives a speech about the state’s restrictive abortion laws during her commencement (YouTube screengrab)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised a Texas high school valedictorian after she used her speech at graduation to rail against the state's restrictive abortion laws.

First reported by D Magazine, Paxton Smith, the valedictorian of Lake Highlands High School's Class of 2021, was preparing to graduate after earning a 104.93 GPA, and to submit her speech for review at the school's commencement ceremony.

She told the outlet that she became increasingly disturbed by the recently passed "heartbeat bill" Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law earlier this year. The law effectively bans abortions once six weeks of a pregnancy has passed, even in the instances of incest or rape.

Abortion rights activists have called the law - which goes into effect in September - among the most restrictive in the country.

She determined that she needed to use her platform to address the bill, so she set out to dupe the high school by submitting a speech for review that she knew would be accepted while planning her real speech at home.

Despite being an outgoing person, Ms Smith said she was nervous ahead of giving the speech, for obvious reasons - not only was her viewpoint likely to be met with resistance by at least some of the audience in the reliably red state, she was also undermining the trust her administrators put in her when they named her valedictorian.

So she practiced her speech, ensuring she got the words down, but said when she went to deliver her remarks at her commencement, she blanked.

She pulled a white piece of paper from inside of her commencement gown and began her speech, shakily at first but growing in confidence as she got into her remarks.

During her speech, she said it "feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state," which launched her into her condemnation of Mr Abbott's heartbeat bill.

"Recently the heartbeat bill was passed in Texas. Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortions that take place after 6 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. Six weeks. Most women don’t even realize they’re pregnant by then," she said. "And so, before they have the time to decide if they are emotionally, physically, and financially stable enough to carry out a full-term pregnancy, before they have the chance to decide if they can take on the responsibility of bringing another human into the world, the decision has been made for them by a stranger. A decision that will affect the rest of their lives."

She went on, discussing the ambitions women have and the futures they dream of, and how the bill strips them of the autonomy to make decisions about their lives.

"I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if I’m raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant. I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you," she said.

She concluded by saying she refused "to give up this platform to promote complacency and peace when there is a war on my body and a war on my rights," and told listeners "we cannot stay silent."

Her speech drew the attention of people in her community and more broadly on social media, including praise from Ms Clinton.

"This took guts. Thank you for not staying silent, Paxton," Ms Clinton tweeted.

Others - including some of her administrators - did not share the former First Lady's sentiments.

She claims that some administrators said the school could withhold her diploma for what she did, though she has not seen anything come of that threat as of yet.

Ms Smith said she had no regrets over using the platform to deliver her message.

"It feels great. It also feels a little weird," she said two days after giving the speech. "Whenever I have opinions that can be considered political or controversial, I keep them to myself because I don't like getting attention. It just feels weird for me personally, that I'm linked to the attention that the speech got."