Pregnant woman given HOV lane ticket says unborn baby is a passenger

A pregnant woman who was handed a $215 ticket for driving in a HOV lane has slammed cops for ‘wasting’ her time and making her ‘blood boil’ after they dismissed her concerns. Brandy Bottone, 34, claims that her unborn baby should count as a person, which would allow her to use the lane normally reserved for vehicles with multiple passengers. The mother-of-one told CNN that her ‘blood boiled’ when officers refused to talk to her about why she was getting the citation after using the lane on a Texas highway.

Brandy, who said she wasn’t trying to make a political statement, attempted to use the overturning of Roe v. Wade to her advantage after being pulled over. She had been rushing to collect her son from school when she was pulled over for using the higher occupancy lane but was told by the officer that being 34 weeks pregnant didn’t count and the baby had to be ‘outside’ of her body to count. A second officer reportedly told her that if she wanted to ‘fight’ the citation that he was ‘sure’ it would be dropped. 

Speaking to CNN she said: ‘I had no idea what was going on, I slammed on my brakes. I thought maybe they were looking for someone or there was a car wreck. Never in my wildest dreams it was a HOV checkpoint. I got pulled over and the officer said ”you’re in a HOV lane”. He then said “great, where is the other person, is there somebody else in the car?” Looking around, I said, “Well yes, there is.” He said, “Well, where?” As he’s peeking in the car, I pointed at my stomach and said, “Right here.” He said, “Well, it’s two bodies outside of the body so that doesn’t count”. I was kind of in shock, well, in light of everything that’s happened, I asked, “Do you understand that this is a baby?”‘

‘He kind of just brushed me off asked me to go to the other officer to get my citation. I spoke to that officer, and I said a similar thing. He said, “ma’am, this is what you have been cited for, and, honestly, if you go and fight this, I’m sure it will get dropped.” That then kinda boiled my blood. Not only did I get dismissed, didn’t have a conversation about it. But it kind of just wasted my time, and I’m going to have to waste my time July 20 fighting a ticket that I feel I shouldn’t have gotten.’ The issue arises because the Texas penal code recognizes an unborn child as a person, but the Texas Transportation Code does not. 

Under current laws, to use the HOV lane, a person must take up an extra seat, which an unborn child in a womb does not do. Abortions are all but impossible to obtain in Texas following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last month. Texas law means abortions are illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. 

There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, though there is one for women at risk of ‘substantial impairment of major bodily function.’ Bottone intends to fight the ticket when she goes to court over the matter on July 20, after receiving the ticket on June 28. A fundraiser set up for the marketing operations director by her family has so far raised $850 of their $10,000 goal. Dallas County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on Bottone’s pregnancy argument, with the check taking place at U.S. 75 South near Midpark Road.