A woman in the US state of Texas said she would appeal a traffic ticket claiming her unborn baby should count as a passenger after she was fined for driving in a lane for vehicles with multiple people in them.
Brandy Bottone, 32, was fined $275 on June 29 after being stopped by Texas police.
She argued that her baby should be counted as a person, with the U.S. Supreme Court revoking her constitutional right to abortion. Bottone, who is 34 weeks pregnant, plans to appeal the fine in court.
He said the incident occurred after he used the lane for vehicles with at least two passengers in a hurry to pick up his six-year-old son. As soon as he left the road, he was stopped by the police.
Bottone told the local Dallas Morning News that when asked if there were any other passengers in his car, he pointed to his stomach and told the officer, “My baby is right here. He’s a human.”
But the officer said the permit required two people to “get out of the body” and fined him.
The last move by the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade? The historic decision that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion 50 years ago? rekindled the baby rights debate.
Is Texas among the 13 US states that passed laws banning abortion even before the Supreme Court decision? Now, it is up to each state to decide on voluntary termination of pregnancy.
In late June, a judge granted an injunction allowing Texas abortion clinics to operate for another two weeks. However, this decision was blocked by the State Supreme Court.
The mother, who was stopped by police in Texas, said she took into account the entire current context of the abortion debate when arguing against the traffic ticket.
“I thought so [ser parada pela polícia] It was a strange thing, and ‘anything that happens, especially in Texas, that counts as a baby,’ Bottone told the Washington Post.
She also stated that she used the lane for vehicles with more than one passenger during her previous pregnancy. Although she told the newspaper she believes women have to make a choice about what to do with their bodies, “that doesn’t mean I’m pro-life (for abortion rights) either.”
While the Texas Penal Code recognizes an unborn baby as a person, the state’s traffic laws do not.
Legal experts suggest the Bottone case reveals a “gray area” that has emerged since the US Supreme Court’s ruling last month.
– Text published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62132871.
source: Noticias
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