Brandy Bottone of Plano, Texas, was driving in the high-occupancy vehicle lane on US Highway 75 South when she was pulled over by a police officer; to drive in an HOV lane, there must be more than one person in the vehicle, he said.
Bottone said she didn't see the problem as she was 34 weeks pregnant.
When the officer asked where the other car passenger was, she pointed to her stomach: “My baby girl is right here. She is a person.” The officer, as Bottone recalled, said that both people needed to be “outside of the body."
Bottone correctly pointed out the double standard in Texas law: is her unborn child a living person or not?
In Texas, two laws conflict: whether an unborn child is a living person or not.
She told the Dallas Morning News: “One officer kind of brushed me off when I mentioned this is a living child.
I'm not sure why you're not seeing that," she explained to the officer. Her explanation did not sit well with the officer, who issued her a $215 fine.
The incident comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's contentious decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month. Abortions are illegal in Texas.
Bottone told the DallasMorning news that she is going to fight it. Her court dadate and her due date is on July 20.