Brandy Bottone, who is pregnant, is using the contentious Roe v. Wade decision to fight a traffic ticket in Texas; the Supreme Court may not have seen this one coming. Her case may become precedent-setting.
When Brandy claims she was stopped in Dallas County for solo driving in the HOV lane, she was 34 weeks pregnant. She claims that she informed the officer that her unborn child was traveling with her and cited the SCOTUS decision to support her claim.
Brandy says, “I pointed to my stomach and said, ‘My baby girl is right here. She is a person.'”
She informed the officer that she didn’t want to get political, but because of a Supreme Court ruling that gives states the authority to enact abortion regulations, her fetus is now legally recognized as a person in Texas.
Brandy claims she will challenge the $275 ticket in court because the officer didn’t believe her story. According to her, Texas law recognizes the individuality of “an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization to birth.”
The officer allegedly informed Brandy that the HOV regulations apply to “2 persons outside of the body.”
We’ll find out when she goes to court July 20. She says, “This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life. I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking.”
Her case may establish a legal precedent in Texas, one that we might observe playing out in other states where new laws are redefining when life begins, depending on how far her case progresses in the Texas courts.
