Texas high school valedictorian Paxton Smith used her graduation speech to promote abortion and lament the “war” on “women’s bodies” — and naturally became an international media darling.
Though she’s sure to get far less media attention than Smith, a former schoolmate is firing back, advocating for the unborn in a rebuttal piece published at LiveAction.
Ilona Bistrian, a 2020 graduate who formerly attended Lake Highlands High School, took issue with Smith’s speech, particularly her statement denouncing “how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.”
“It is interesting because at first glance I fully agree with this statement,” Bistrian wrote. “But on closer examination, when discovering that this statement is arguing in favor of one of the worst crimes and atrocities being committed upon mothers and their children, I was appalled!”
“In essence, her statement is true. There is nothing more dehumanizing than to have your personhood be stripped away from you and have your body mercilessly ripped apart while you are still alive, with no voice and no way to defend yourself. There is nothing more gut-wrenching than advocating for the exploitation of women’s bodies, the rape of their womb, and the profit that is produced from it,” the recent graduate continued. “Have we really allowed ourselves to become so blind? How can we tolerate the obliteration of the most vulnerable? How can we encourage the manipulation of the female mind?”
Bistrian also took issue with Smith’s assertion that her hopes and dreams would be crushed if she were to have an unplanned pregnancy and then be barred from killing the baby via abortion.
“To say that one must have an abortion to be able to accomplish their dreams is not only a slap in the face to the millions of women who have worked hard to overcome their obstacles as a mother, but it is degrading to women as a whole,” Bistrian rebuffed the valedictorian.
For Smith to focus on pregnancy-by-rape to promote abortion, Bistrian wrote, is a “strawman” argument that still does not invalidate the life an unborn child:
Moreover, to hide behind the strawman of the rape argument is demeaning to those who have been conceived through rape. Does the circumstance of conception determine human worth now? Are children who could not control the manner of how they were brought into existence subhuman and inferior to those who were conceived conventionally? Are we to teach young women who have gone through this terrible trauma that they cannot succeed in life if they choose to keep their child? Are we going to assume that abortion is the only solution, and be ignorant of adoption and the dozens of couples in line for every one baby?
In one sense, Bistrian said, Smith is “right.”
“There is a war on our bodies — our bodies, precious and strong vessels that were given the power to produce life,” she wrote. “There is nothing more beautiful than to bring a new human into the world. There is nothing more empowering than to raise and influence the next generation of history makers. And that ability is being warred on, in an attempt to degrade it to nothing, to tear it down to the status of a disease. There is a war on our human rights. Or more specifically, the right to life. Life – the first, foundational right from where all rights stem from.”
“If our inherent, inalienable right is taken away, then no other right exists,” she emphasized. “We can no longer be silent. We can no longer be complicit in this crime against humanity.”
“I am in full support of protecting the most vulnerable,” Bistrian closed her post. “I am in full support of the Texas Heartbeat bill, and any future law that is passed to protect the human in the womb. Because at the end of the day, we are all human. And by virtue of being human, we are all entitled — born or preborn — to dignity, respect, and to life.”
Read the full post, here.
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Source: Dailywire
