Pregnant woman in HOV lane to challenge ticket
Is an unborn fetus a human being in the eyes of...Texas traffic laws?
A pregnant Dallas-area woman argued as much to police officers after recently being cited for driving alone in the HOV lane, according to a story published Friday afternoon by the Dallas Morning News' Dave Lieber.
Lieber reports that Plano resident Brandy Bettone was driving along U.S. Highway 75 en route to picking up her son when she found herself at a checkpoint facing a citation for using the high-occupancy vehicle lane while alone in her car.
"I was driving to pick up my son. I knew I couldn't be a minute late, so I took the HOV lane," Bettone told Lieber. "As I exited the HOV, there was a checkpoint at the end of the exit. I slammed on my brakes and I was pulled over by police."
Bettone said officers asked her if there were any more occupants inside her vehicle. Pregnant with a daughter, Bettone told the officers her unborn child was inside the vehicle with her, according to Lieber.
"I pointed to my stomach and said, 'My baby girl is right here. She is a person,'" Bettone said. However the officers were not buying it. "He said, 'Oh, no. It's got to be two people outside of the body.'"
Bettone spoke with multiple officers over the course of her encounter, she told Lieber. One seemed indifferent, Bettone claimed, while another gave her a citation and told her to challenge it in court to have it thrown out.
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I think she has an interesting case that has some support from the Texas abortion law. I would let her off.
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