Can pregnant drivers use HOV lane? Texas woman fights ticket after Roe v. Wade ruling

Can pregnant drivers use the high occupancy vehicle lane? That question is being debated in Texas after a pregnant woman received a traffic ticket for doing so, according to media reports.

Brandy Bottone of Plano, was in a rush to pick up her son on June 29 when she decided to take the HOV lane on the expressway outside Dallas, Bottone told the Dallas Morning News. At the time, Bottone was 34 weeks pregnant.

A Dallas County deputy stopped her, Bottone, 32, told The Washington Post. He looked in her vehicle and asked if anyone else was riding with her.

“I pointed to my stomach and said, ‘My baby girl is right here. She is a person,’” Bottone told Dallas Morning News.

According to Bottone, the deputy responded saying, “‘Ma’am, it’s two people outside of the body,’” she told WFAA.

Bottone protested, but deputies still gave her a $215 traffic ticket for HOV lane violations, The Washington Post reported. Bottone plans to fight the ticket.

According to state guidelines, HOV lanes can be used by “a vehicle occupied by two or more people.”

A few days before Bottone’s ticket, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a landmark ruling that ended the constitutional right to an abortion. Texas had an impending “trigger law” that would further restrict abortion access in the state.

Bottone’s traffic ticket highlighted a discrepancy between Texas penal codes and transportation codes. The state’s penal code recognizes a fetus as a person, but the transportation code does not, reported the Dallas Morning News.

“One law is saying that this is a baby and now he’s telling me this baby that’s jabbing my ribs is not a baby. Why can’t it all make sense?” Bottone told WFAA.

Bottone has a court date at the end of July to fight her ticket. The case may move the state further into “unchartered territory,” The Washington Post reported.

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