A pregnant woman in Texas is arguing for the right for her unborn fetus to be considered a second passenger in her vehicle while traveling in an HOV lane. The violation fee is a $215 ticket.
Bottone failed to get this dismissed she says she’s willing to fight the violation.
‘I was driving to pick up my son. I knew I couldn’t be a minute late, so I took the HOV lane.
“As I exited the HOV, there was a checkpoint at the end of the exit. I slammed on my brakes, and I was pulled over by police. An officer peeked in and asked, ‘Is there anybody else in the car?'”, Bottone told the Dallas Morning News.
“I pointed to my stomach and said, My baby girl, is right here. She is a person.”
‘He said, ‘Oh, no. It’s got to be two people outside of the body.’
‘One officer kind of brushed me off when I mentioned this is a living child, according to everything that’s going on with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. ‘So I don’t know why you’re not seeing that,’ I said.’
‘He was like, ‘I don’t want to deal with this.’ Bottone explained. ‘He said, ‘Ma’am, it means two persons outside of the body.’ ‘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.’
Texas penal code recognizes an unborn child as a person, but the Texas Transportation Code does not.
An unborn child is in a womb and does not take up an extra seat.
Bottone says she intends to fight the ticket when she appears in court later this month.
“Abortions are all but impossible to obtain in Texas following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
Texas law means abortions are illegal after six weeks of pregnancy.
Contributing credit Daily Mail/Dallas Morning News.