A pregnant woman from Plano, Texas who got a ticket for driving in an HOV lane has argued that her unborn child should count as a second person following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
As NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reported, Brandy Bottone was driving alone on U.S. Highway 75 to pick up her son on June 29. She took an HOV lane to avoid being late, but she was later pulled over by a patrol officer after she attempted to exit the expressway. In order to use these lanes, the individual driving must be accompanied by at least one other passenger. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, she argued that the $275 ticket shouldn’t count because she is 34 weeks pregnant.
“He starts peeking around. He’s like, ‘Is it just you?’ And I said, ‘No there’s two of us?’” Bottone said. “And he said, ‘Well where’s the other person.’ And I went, ‘right here,’” at which point she gestured towards her stomach. However, the officer said that her unborn child does not count, even though Texas penal code currently recognizes an unborn child as a person. As it stands, Texas transportation code does not recognize a fetus as a person. Bottone plans to fight against the ticket in court.
“He waved me on to the next cop who gave me a citation and said, ‘If you fight it, it will most likely get dropped,'” she told the Dallas Morning News. “This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life. … I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking.” She argued that Texas laws should be consistent when it comes to the what does and doesn’t constitute a person. “I really don’t think it’s right because one law is saying it one way but another law is saying it another way,” she added.
