Pregnant Driver Cites Texas Abortion Law to Justify Using HOV Lane Alone

A pregnant woman in Texas tried to dodge a traffic ticket for driving alone in a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane by arguing that her unborn baby is considered a second person given the state's abortion ban following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Brandy Bottone of Plano, Texas, was driving alone down Central Expressway on June 29 when she was stopped by a patrol officer for breaking the rules that are set for using the HOV lane, which requires the driver to have at least one other passenger in their vehicle, NBC-5 Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

However, Bottone argued that her unborn baby is counted as a second person, citing the Texas abortion ban following the overturn of Roe v. Wade last month, which is the 1973 landmark decision that gave women the federal right to have an abortion.

Last week, the Texas Supreme Court issued an order allowing the state to enforce a 1925 abortion ban after it was temporarily blocked by a lower court order, according to CNN.

The state also has a separate abortion ban stemming from its trigger law. The overturn of Roe allows 13 states, including Texas, to enact their so-called trigger laws that gives states the ability to restrict or ban abortions due to pre-Roe provisions that are in their statute books.

"He [the officer] starts peeking around. He's like, 'Is it just you?' And I said, 'No there's two of us,'" Bottone, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time of the incident, told the local news station. "And he said, 'Well where's the other person?' And I went, 'Right here,'" and pointed to her stomach.

After the officer told her that her unborn baby doesn't count, she responded: "Well [I'm] not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on [with Roe v. Wade], this counts as a baby."

However, the officer insisted that she needed to have another person outside of her body in order to be allowed to use the HOV lane.

'This Is a Life'

Bottone ended up receiving a $275 ticket, which she plans to fight in court, after the deputy with the Dallas County Sheriff's Department wasn't convinced of her argument.

"This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life," she told The Dallas Morning News in an article published Friday. "I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking."

Though the Texas penal code recognizes an unborn child as an individual, the state's transportation law doesn't, sparking a grey legal area that state courts haven't addressed yet, experts said.

"Different judges might treat this differently," Dallas appellate lawyer Chad Ruback told NBC-5 Dallas-Fort Worth. "This is uncharted territory we're in now. There is no Texas statute that says what to do in this situation. The Texas transportation code has not been amended recently to address this particular situation. Who knows? Maybe the legislature will in the next session."

Newsweek reached out to the Dallas County Sheriff's Department for comment.