DALLAS: When an officer pulled Brandy Bottone over for driving by herself in a high occupancy vehicle lane in Texas just days after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she pointed to her pregnant belly and told him her unborn daughter now counts as a person.
“I said, ‘Well, not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on, this counts as a baby,” said Bottone, who was eight months pregnant when she was pulled over June 29.
Bottone, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Plano, plans to fight the ticket in court next week. Her story was first reported by The Dallas Morning News.
“I was driving to pick up my son. I knew I couldn’t be a minute late, so I took the HOV lane,” she said.
Bottone’s ticket came five days after the Supreme Court stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. In Texas, the fall of Roe put in motion a trigger law that will ban virtually all abortions in the coming weeks, and defines an unborn child as a living human from fertilization to birth. And in the meantime, a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court led to clinics halting abortion services.
Last year in Texas, a law banning most abortions after about six weeks — before many women know they are pregnant — took effect.
Bottone said the stand she’s taking on the ticket isn’t for or against abortion, but that the law should be uniform. “If there’s a pro-women category, that’s my stance,” she said.
“One law is saying that this is a baby and now he’s telling me this baby that’s jabbing my ribs is not a baby,” said Bottone, 32. “Why can’t it all make sense?”
Dallas attorney Chad Ruback said different judges might have different takes on her argument.
“I find her argument creative, but I don’t believe based on the current itineration of Texas Transportation Code that her argument would likely succeed in front of an appellate court,” Ruback told the Washington Post. “That being said, it’s entirely possible she could find a trial court judge who would award her for her creativity.”
An Arizona woman tried to argue in 2006 that her unborn child counted as a passenger after she was fined for driving alone in a carpool lane, but a judge rejected the claim, saying the rules were designed to fill empty seats in a vehicle.
Meanwhile in Texas, Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison, wrote on Twitter that he plans to introduce legislation to clarify that unborn babies should be treated as passengers. He said: “Unborn babies are persons (meaning they’re also passengers), and should be treated accordingly under Texas laws.”
Texas woman says unborn baby counts as passenger in HOV lane
https://arab.news/8xv7u
Texas woman says unborn baby counts as passenger in HOV lane
- Bottone’s ticket came five days after the Supreme Court stripped away women’s constitutional protections for abortion. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
