A pregnant motorist recently fined by Texas police for driving in a carpool lane believes her fetus counts as a passenger and has decided to take the matter to court.
Brandy Bottone, 32 years old and in her 34th week of pregnancy, was arrested on June 29 on a fast lane by a police officer who fined her, believing that she was traveling alone in her car.
She was in a lane reserved for vehicles carrying at least two people, which she does not dispute.
"It does not count"
But the young woman had pleaded with the policeman, in vain, that her unborn child was indeed a person in the eyes of the law since the Supreme Court of the United States had reversed the judgment a few days earlier which guaranteed the right to voluntary termination of pregnancy at the federal level, leaving this decision in the hands of each state.
Read also“Abortion in the United States: what the Supreme Court could decide”
The policeman said "
is there anyone else in the car
," she said in an interview with CNN.
“
I pointed to my stomach and said
'
exactly here
'
.
He replied
, '
Well, it takes two people outside the body, so that doesn't count
,' Brandy Bottone added.
“
I was a bit shocked and said,
'
Given everything that's just happened, and I don't want to make a political thing out of it, do you understand that this is a baby?
“”, insisted the motorist.
She decided to challenge this fine in court.
Read alsoRan Halevi: “Abortion in the United States, the Supreme Court undermines American democracy under the guise of defending it”
The Texas Penal Code, like those of many other conservative states, recognizes a fetus or unborn child as a “
person
,” which transportation laws do not appear to do.
Even before the Supreme Court decision, Texas, through legal sleight of hand, last September banned all abortions from around six weeks of pregnancy upon detection of cardiac activity in the child. 'embryo.