I would be extremely surprised if the state's transportation code specifically called out "outside the body". Also I don't think it would make sense if it did. What's the functional difference between an en-wombed child and a recently released one in this situation?
I say they should let her go in the HOV lane.
The Texas Department of Transportation says the HOV lane can be used by "a vehicle occupied by two or more people" and nothing in their list of exclusions precludes pregnant women.
https://www.txdot.gov/driver/managed-lanes/high-occupancy-ve...
What is the difference between a 20 and 21 year old?
Just a dividing line that is easy to understand.
I’m ok with that. Laws should be easy to understand even if they include lines that seem arbitrary immediately on one side or the other.
Looking further into it Texas Transportation Code Title 6 Chapter 224 subchapter F section 224.151 says:
"(3) 'High occupancy vehicle' means a bus or other motorized passenger vehicle such as a carpool or vanpool vehicle used for ridesharing purposes and occupied by a specified minimum number of persons."
You can download the Texas Transportation Code here: https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Download.aspx and if you do that and grep for what "person" might mean anywhere in the transportation code, like so:
grep -io '"person" means [^.]*.' *
tn.394.htm:"Person" means an individual, association, or corporation.
tn.397.htm:"Person" means an individual, corporation, or association.
tn.472.htm:"Person" means an individual, firm, association, or corporation and includes an officer, agent, independent contractor, employee, or trustee of that individual or entity.
tn.52.htm:"Person" means an individual, association, organization, trust, partnership, or corporation.
tn.541.htm:"Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation.
tn.601.htm:"Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation.
tn.680.htm:"Person" means an individual, partnership, firm, corporation, association, or other private entity.
tn.730.htm:"Person" means an individual, organization, or entity but does not include this state or an agency of this state.
> The Texas Department of Transportation says the HOV lane can be used by "a vehicle occupied by two or more people"
The DOT website isn't authoritative of course
The offense would seem to be from the transportation code 452.0613(d)(2):
https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/transportation-code/transp-sect...
452.0613(d)(2) operating a vehicle in or entering a high occupancy vehicle lane operated, managed, or maintained by an authority with fewer than the required number of *occupants*.
The penal code has different definitions of "Person" than the transportation code:
https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-1-07.html
1.07(26) "Individual" means a human being who is alive, including an *unborn child at every stage of gestation* from fertilization until birth.
1.07(38) “Person” means an *individual* or a corporation, association, limited liability company, or other entity or organization governed by the Business Organizations Code.
https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/transportation-code/transp-sect...
455.412(a) A person commits an offense if the person operates a passenger vehicle, transports a child who is younger than eight years of age, unless the child is taller than four feet, nine inches, and does not keep the child secured during the operation of the vehicle in a child passenger safety seat system according to the instructions of the manufacturer of the safety seat system.
A possible defense could be to claim that the mother's womb was in this case the "child passenger safety seat system" and also, being the manufacturer, she had secured the child in accordance with her own instructions.
I hope she takes this to court, I have a feeling they'd dismiss the ticket rather than have these arguments, but if they do it'd be interesting...
I think if this ends the debate on whether a fetus is a life or not, then so be it.
But I suspect many pregnant women will still want the right to be selective of when to treat it as a separate life and when not to...
If you want to incentivize efficient highway use, deny it to all but multiple humans over the age of 0 days (no pun intended).
And then beyond that, rip up highways and replace them with train services.
Their ruling would probably be that the kids needs to be removed from the womb by the mother for the duration of the journey, whereupon it will be safely secured in a child seat in the second row, then placed back in the womb once the journey has come to an end.
Not really, the supreme court just decided that it's up to the legislative branch to decide things like this.
I imagine it is similar in Texas
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/09/texas-woman-...
Managed to deduce from comments that it’s some kind of commuting lane but can’t figure out the acronym.