Pregnant Texas driver cites fetus in traffic-ticket fight

A pregnant Texas woman is attempting to quash a traffic ticket by claiming her unborn child was a passenger in her car in a high-occupancy vehicle lane, a scenario that highlights the inconsistency of the state's strict abortion law when it applies to fetuses.

Brandy Bottone, 32, who lives in Plano and was 34 weeks' pregnant at the time, was driving on Interstate 75 on June 29 to pick up her son. The highway was congested, so she drove in the HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane.

In Texas, HOV lanes require two or more passengers in a vehicle.

Bottone was stopped at a checkpoint by a police officer who asked: "Is there anyone else in the car?"

Bottone said, "Yes, right here, there she is," while pointing at her stomach.

The police officer said, "It's two persons outside of the body."

To which Bottone replied: "Well, that's weird. I am not trying to make a political stand here, but in light of everything that's going on, this is a baby; she's 34 weeks."

Bottone said she then was directed to another police officer who gave her a $275 ticket for violating the HOV law. She said the officer was avoiding eye contact with her to not be dragged into an argument about personhood. But the officer did tell her that if she fights the ticket in court, it will probably be dismissed.

Bottone said she has two other children and has done the same thing before. She said she always viewed her pregnancy as herself and another person, and a HOV lane is safer for driving.

"I just feel there are two of us there and I was wrongly getting ticketed," she said.

Under the Texas penal code, a person could be an "individual" and an individual means a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.

Bottone has hired a law firm to fight the traffic ticket in court on July 20 and her due date is Aug 3.

Since the Dallas Morning News first reported the case about a week ago, the report has caught worldwide attention. Bottone said it has been "surreal" that she has had an outpouring of support not only in the US but worldwide.

Last year, Texas passed a law banning abortion after six-weeks. After the Supreme Court on June 24 overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in the Roe vs Wade and gave individual states the power to allow, limit or ban the practice altogether, some legislators are talking about banning all abortion.

Bottone's case illustrates how messy the law can get when it treats a fetus as a person.

Some have questioned that if her ticket is dismissed, does it mean that a pregnant women can use HOV lanes as they please? If not, how can one section of law interpret a fetus as a person while another piece disregards a fetus as a 'person?

"If we're talking about a fetus being a person, there's a lot of other rights that attach to being a person that will be litigated in the courts, such as, does my fetus qualify for a tax deduction? Does my fetus qualify for citizenship? Does my fetus qualify for child support?" Loni Coombs, a former Los Angeles County prosecutor, told CNN. "These are all issues that are going to be raised and probably litigated in the courts."