By Anna, Jane’s Due Process Advocacy Fellow
“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.”
These words spoken during Paxton Smith’s valedictorian speech is a fear that I experienced first hand during my senior year of high school in Richardson ISD.
The month I turned 17, I walked into a Planned Parenthood to find a way to access hormonal birth control. I knew that condoms fail, and I wanted to be safe. I walked out with nothing, due to me being a minor without parental consent.
After the case of a ripped condom months later, I walked into a Tom Thumb to purchase one emergency contraceptive pill. I realized that the condom failed, and I wanted to prevent an accidental pregnancy. I walked out with nothing, after being refused sale due to me being a minor, even though FDA guidelines point out that Plan B is an over the counter drug.
I was terrified that my contraceptive failed and that I may no longer be able to enroll in college and pursue a higher education. After using pregnancy tests daily for weeks, I found double lines staring back at me one weekend. I was mortified at the possibility of being forced to give birth to something that would end my education immediately. I called my best friend and ordered her a rideshare to my family’s house. She came with the phone number to an organization called Jane’s Due Process that helps young people like me who don’t have parental consent access abortion care. I was automatically connected to Amanda, who helped me organize my abortion procedure and everything else that was involved, including obtaining a judicial bypass. I knew that in addition to my only form of contraceptives failing me, that every “trusted” adult in my life by rejecting my choices for my own health failed me even more and forced me to petition the court for a judicial bypass to be able to consent on my own.
The judicial bypass process was extremely dehumanizing and traumatic. What made the situation worse is that I told my teachers about my accidental pregnancy due to me needing time off of school to get my abortion procedure. And, I felt betrayed when a teacher in charge of family planning that I did not know or talk to, came to me knowing that I was in the process of planning my abortion. She sat me down with a manila envelope which contained information about the judicial bypass, which Jane’s Due Process already helped me with.
The process of getting my abortion was so hectic as it is extremely time sensitive and I was overwhelmed with the restrictions on abortion that anti-abortion politicians have set in place in Texas. I felt isolated. I was displayed and interrogated, sitting in the courtroom reading out all of my achievements to prove to the judge that I am mature and I needed an abortion to continue my dreams and not to be a baby making machine.
I found out about my pregnancy very early on, at four weeks, and I was able to get my sonogram and judicial bypass the next week. My procedure happened a day or so after my sixth week. Many people do not have the privilege that I had, where I was able to catch it early, but I still had my abortion after six weeks. The six-week ban on abortion that Texas passed this legislative session — the bill that Paxton spoke out again — means that I would not have been able to get my abortion. It also means that organizations like Jane’s Due Process could be sued for helping me get my abortion.
Listening to Paxton Smith’s speech filled me with hope that more young people enrolled at Texas public schools are refusing to allow high school administrators from silencing them and are boldly speaking up in support of abortion. We refuse to allow anti-choice extremists to take away our constitutional right to abortion. Thank you Paxton for your courage to take a stand for Texans right to abortion and for inspiring me to publicly share my own story as a teen who needed an abortion my senior year at RISD. I hope that your speech will continue to inspire more Texans to rise up and get involved in the fight for reproductive freedom.
