AUSTIN, Texas — Abortion rights activist Paxton Smith is sure the leaked document by the Supreme Court means Roe v. Wade will be overturned.
“A lot of people have been trying to downplay the leak saying, ‘Oh, we don’t know if it’s official. We don’t know if they’re going to change their minds,’” she said. “[But] they wrote the draft because they were planning for it to be the final decision…. So if you don’t like that, take it to the streets now, do what we can now, because this reality is coming whether we like it or not, or whether we want to believe that it’s coming or not.”
Smith went viral last year when she scrapped her original, school-approved valedictorian speech and spoke instead about the Texas Heartbeat Act.
Since graduating high school and starting college at the University of Texas at Austin, Smith has continued her activism. She’s cowritten a book titled “A War on My Body,” spoken at events with Planned Parenthood and even traveled abroad to Geneva, Switzerland for the Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights. But Smith says she does all this out of an obligation to herself and other women.
“It’s more of something done out of necessity than passion or interest,” she said. “Honestly, if I didn’t have to talk about abortion for another day, like OK, that’s great, bye. It would be no skin off my back. I do not want to talk about this.”
If Roe v. Wade ends up being overturned, Smith says she’s scared.
“There’s always a chance that you could get pregnant,” Smith said. “Even if you’re being 100% abstinent, you’re not free from rape, considering that one in five women in the U.S. is a victim of attempted or completed rape within their lifetime.”
Smith believes that being able to have an abortion is a human right.
“The reason why I value abortion is… I want to be the one in control of my life, and that means that I can’t be forced to have children against my will, whenever it meets the needs of a stranger,” she said.
Smith is busy with studying for finals, but she still makes time for activism. She marched to the Texas Capitol on Tuesday to advocate for abortion rights.
Smith encourages other Texans to fight for what they believe in too.
“I think if enough people take it upon themselves to take to the streets or be vocal about their beliefs, then I think yeah, it could make change,” she said.
