Yahoo Finance Pregnant Woman Refers To Overturn Of Roe In Effort To Escape Traffic Ticket
A Plano, Texas, woman stopped by police in the high-occupancy lane referenced the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade during a traffic stop last month.
Brandy Bottone, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, was stopped in Dallas for using the HOV lane on her way to pick up her son in June, The Dallas Morning News reported.
An officer who pulled Bottone over asked if “anybody else” was in the car and the woman responded “yes,” according to the newspaper.
“I pointed to my stomach and said, ‘My baby girl is right here. She is a person,’” Bottone told the paper.
“He said, ‘Oh, no. It’s got to be two people outside of the body.’”
The woman said she argued that her unborn child was a living person but winded up getting a $215 ticket for her choice of lane despite her response.
“This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life,” she said.
“I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking.”
A Dallas County Sheriff Department spokesman told the Morning News that officers stop vehicles in the HOV lane when they can see only one person inside them, but didn’t weigh in on Bottone’s argument.
Chad Ruback, an appellate lawyer in Dallas, told KXAS-TV that different judges may treat Bottone’s argument “differently.”
“This is uncharted territory we’re in now,” Ruback said.
“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.”
Bottone, who told the newspaper she’s fighting the ticket, is due in court on July 20.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
