- A pregnant woman who challenged a $215 fine after driving in a carpool lane received a second citation.
- She claimed that her unborn child should count as a passenger under Texas's abortion law.
A pregnant woman who fought a $215 fine for driving alone in the carpool lane in Texas has given birth a month after receiving a second ticket.
"It was about a month after the first ticket that she was pulled over and ticketed again," Claire Crouch, a spokesperson from the Dallas District Attorney's office, told NPR.
Brandy Bottone, 32, who was 34 weeks into her pregnancy at the time of her first citation, was stopped by police in June for driving by herself in the carpool lane on her way to pick up her son, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Bottone argued with the officer that she hadn't violated any laws for driving in the carpool lane, claiming that because of Texas's abortion laws, the fetus she was carrying was considered a human and a passenger.
"If a fetus is considered a life before birth, then why doesn't that count as a second passenger?" Bottone told the outlet.
Under Texas's six-week abortion ban, a fetus is considered to be a person when determining whether a crime is committed.
After hearing her case, a judge dismissed her first ticket, but in the following month of July, a then-pregnant Bottone was issued a second ticket for riding in the carpool lane by herself again, according to NPR.
Crouch told NPR that Bottone's second case is still pending. She announced in an Instagram post that she has given birth to a girl.
"My second passenger has arrived! We are so in love and will be spending all our time loving on baby girl," she wrote in the post.