UNITED STATES – This is a perfectly American story. A pregnant motorist recently fined by Texas police for driving in a carpooling lane believes her fetus is considered a passenger and she has decided to take the matter to court.
Brandy Bottone, 32 and 34 weeks pregnant, was arrested on June 29 in a fast lane by a police officer who fined her, believing she was traveling alone in her car.
It was in the “carpool lane”, a lane reserved for vehicles carrying at least two people, which is not disputed.
Texas woman Brandy Bottone tries to get a $ 215 ticket for driving in the HOV (carpool) lane claiming that her unborn child is a person, and therefore a passenger in the car, under Texas laws that prohibit abortion. She failed and she was given the ticket. pic.twitter.com/kwBy2i4MYO
—Mike Sington (@MikeSington) July 9, 2022
But the young woman had pleaded in vain to the policeman that her unborn child was indeed a person in the eyes of the law since the Supreme Court of the United States had revoked a few days earlier the sentence that guaranteed the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy at the federal level. leaving this decision in the hands of each state.
Fetus or “unborn person”?
The policeman said “someone else is in the car,” he said in an interview on CNN. “I pointed to my stomach and said ‘exactly here’. He said, ‘Well, it takes two people out of the body, so it doesn’t matter,’ “Brandy Bottone added.
A pregnant woman in Texas, Brandy Bottone, says she plans to fight a fine for driving alone in the HOV lane, arguing that her fetus should be considered another passenger since Roe v. Wade was overturned. pic.twitter.com/7Bbp0xy5hW
– The Recount (@therecount) July 11, 2022
“I was a little shocked and said, ‘Given everything that just happened, and I don’t want to make it political, do you understand this is a child?'” The driver insisted.
He decided to challenge his fine in court.
The Texas Penal Code, like that of many other conservative states, recognizes a fetus or unborn child as a “person,” which transportation laws seem not to do.
Even before the Supreme Court ruling, Texas, in legal sleight of hand, last September banned all abortions from about six weeks of pregnancy to detection of cardiac activity in the baby.
See also on the HuffPost: After abortion, sodomy and contraception in the sights of the Supreme Court?
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