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A Texas woman who was fined for driving in a high-occupancy lane said her unborn baby should count as a passenger.
Brandy
Bottone, 32, received the $275 ticket on June 29 after she was stopped by
police in Texas, BBC reports.
The women
argued that given the overturning of the Roe v Wade precedent which gave women
unprecedented access to abortion by the Supreme Court, her unborn child counted
as a person.
The Supreme
Court in its ruling overturned the constitutional right to abortion for women
of reproductive ages.
Ms Bottone
said the incident took place after she used the high-occupancy lane- which
requires at least two passengers while in a hurry to collect her six-year-old
son, according to the BBC. The police stopped her afterwards.
She is 34
weeks pregnant and plans to contest the fine in court.
Ms Bottone
reportedly told the Dallas Morning News that, when asked whether there were any
other passengers in her car, she pointed to her stomach and told the officer:
“My baby is right here. She is a person,” according to the BBC.
The officer
said that the lane required two people “outside the body” and issued her the
fine.