What do you guys think? Does she have much of a case?
In Plano, Texas, one woman is fighting a recent traffic ticket with the argument that her unborn child should count as a second passenger.
In June 2022, Brandy Bottone was stopped at a sheriff’s checkpoint when she was driving down the expressway in the high-occupancy vehicle lane. In order to occupy these lanes, by law, drivers must have at least one passenger in the vehicle with them.
Bottone told NBC DFW, an NBC affiliate in the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex, that when she was stopped by the officer, they began to search her car for another passenger.
“He’s like, ‘Is it just you?’ And I said, ‘No, there’s two of us?” she explained. “And he said, ‘Well, where’s the other person.’”
The expecting mother then said she pointed to her stomach and said, “Right here,” as she was 34 weeks pregnant at the time. The officer discredited her argument, telling Bottone that her unborn child did not count as an additional passenger in this case.
“And then I said, ‘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,’” she told the outlet.
According to Texas penal code, the term “individual” refers to a “human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.”
Bottone ultimately received a $275 ticket, but has plans to fight the fine this month during her next court date on July 20.
Pregnant Texas woman pulled over for driving in HOV lane, says unborn child is 2nd passenger
After receiving the ticket last month, Brandy Bottone plans to fight the fine during a court appearance at the end of July.www.today.com
