A Pregnant US Woman Says Her Fetus Should Count In A Carpool Lane Under New Abortion Rules
A pregnant woman in Texas thinks she's found a loophole in the state's post-Roe v. Wade laws, arguing that she should be able to use a carpool lane because she has a "person" in her womb.
Brandy Bottone, 32, says she recently tried and failed to convince two sheriff's deputies after they pulled her over for using the HOV lane on her own.
Bottone says the incident happened on June 29, less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Roe v. Wade ruling that once guaranteed access to abortion.
"An officer peeked in and asked: 'Is there anybody else in the car?'" she told the Dallas Morning News.
Bottone said she answered "yes," and then pointed to her stomach. "My baby girl is right here. She is a person," she told the officer, according to her account.
"Oh no," he replied, according to her. "It's got to be two people outside of the body."
The officers ended up giving Bottone a $215 ticket, reported the Dallas Morning News.
Now, she argues she shouldn't have to pay that ticket because the state sees her fetus as a living child, "according to everything that's going on with the overturning of Roe v. Wade."
She added in an interview with CNN that one officer told her to fight the ticket, and he was "sure" that she could get it dropped.
"That kind of boiled my blood," she said, calling it a "waste of time."
The state penal code sees a fetus as a living human, but the transportation code does not, per NBC Dallas Fort-Worth.
"I really don't think it's right," Bottone told NBC. "One law is saying it one way but another law is saying it another way."
Texas is one of roughly a dozen states that had been sitting on so-called "trigger" laws for the end of Roe, and the state is expected to ban the operation in almost all cases later this month. It also has a sort of bounty system at work where Texans can sue people whom they suspect of getting or helping with an abortion.
Police have not commented on the incident.
Bottone plans to fight the case in court later this month — though it might be tough with her hearing scheduled for the same day as her due date.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
