Texas bill would allow pregnant drivers in HOV lanes without other passengers
A Houston area lawmaker is proposing letting pregnant drivers use HOV lanes if no one else is in the car.
Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Deer Park Republican, filed the bill on Monday, the first day lawmakers could submit bills for consideration in the Texas legislative session which starts Jan. 10.
The bill states that “an operator of a motor vehicle who is pregnant is entitled to use any high occupancy vehicle lane in this state regardless of whether the vehicle is occupied by a passenger other than the operator ’s unborn child.”
“Texas law has long recognized that an unborn child is a person for purposes of our penal code,” Cain said in a statement. “It is past time that other parts of our laws recognize this fact—an unborn child is a person.”
The legislation comes after Brandy Bottone of Plano, 34 weeks pregnant at the time, was given a traffic ticket in June for driving in an HOV lane outside Dallas. She argued her unborn child counted as person, allowing her to use the multiple-passenger lane. The incident came shortly after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The first ticket was dismissed, and she was later issued a second ticket.
Cain filed the same bill when lawmakers met in October 2021.
Thousands of bills are typically filed for a legislative session, but just a fraction of them become law.
