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Fetal Flummox!

Texas is definitely hypocritical! From NBC News:

Pregnant Texas Woman Cited for HOV Violation Told Cop Her Fetus Is the Passenger
A pregnant Texas woman who got a ticket for driving alone in the car-pool lane plans to fight the citation, arguing her unborn baby should count as a second person.

The woman, Brandy Bottone, was headed to pick up her son when she was stopped at a sheriff’s checkpoint targeting HOV drivers breaking the rules. By law, in order to use the high-occupancy vehicle lanes, drivers must have at least one passenger in the vehicle.

“He starts peeking around. He’s like, ‘Is it just you?’ And I said, ‘No there’s two of us?’” Bottone said. “And he said, ‘Well where’s the other person.’ And I went, ‘right here,’” pointing to her stomach.

At the time of the incident last month, she was 34 weeks pregnant.

But the officer told her that doesn’t count.

“And then I said, ‘Well (I’m) not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on (with Roe v. Wade), this counts as a baby,’” she said.

Though Texas penal code recognizes an unborn child as a person, the state’s transportation code doesn’t.

Bottone got a $275 ticket. She said she plans to fight the ticket in court.

I wonder if corporations are recognized as people under Texas transportation law.

© Pat Bagley

Update: Georgia has decided that an unborn fetus can be declared as a dependent on your tax return.

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4 Comments

  1. Ray wrote:

    Hypocrisy is every evangelical conservative’s middle name–they are just challenged on the spelling.

    Monday, July 11, 2022 at 6:07 am | Permalink
  2. Dan wrote:

    A friend of mine went on a rant about how the “media” was against prayer, I pointed out what was written in the Constitution about “establishment” and what the courts had ruled before that public employees can’t lead prayer involving minors. Also asked him how he would feel if a coach brought out a prayer rug, faced Mecca and… I should have included “read Matthew 6:5” (well actually the first 8 vs).

    Monday, July 11, 2022 at 11:26 am | Permalink
  3. Lewtoo wrote:

    Barry Goldwater
    Now here is a conservative guy that the GOP would now call a libratard today.

    Gheez, now he doesn’t even look all that bad, didn’t think much of him back in the day.

    His views on religion, it turns out, were very preceptive, took awhile, but. But he was spot on, sadly

    “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”
    Barry Goldwater

    Monday, July 18, 2022 at 11:21 am | Permalink
  4. Dave TN wrote:

    On a similar note

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/georgia-fetus-dependent-tax-exemption_n_62e9791ae4b006483aa1f7b0

    Wednesday, August 3, 2022 at 4:35 am | Permalink

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  1. […] Knee at Political Irony brings a real incident illustrating the legal absurdity of declaring a fetus to be a person.   I suppose, with the same logic, we can order a chicken dinner from the menu and find […]