Texas Republican Proposes Bill to Let Pregnant People Drive in the HOV Lane

A conservative wanker in the Texas House has filed legislation that would allow pregnant people to drive in the HOV lane when alone—clearly a backdoor attempt to establish a legal precedent for fetal personhood. The one-page bill, filed last week by state Rep. Briscoe Cain (R), is straightforward in its request:

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.

On first reading, House Bill 153 seems like one of hundreds of bizarre bills that populate state legislatures every year, never to make it out of committee with little chance of making it into law. But this bill language is intended to recognize a fetus as a legal person—the conservative endgame—as part of the Texas GOP’s long-term plan to criminalizing abortion entirely. Fetal personhood laws allow conservatives to call the health procedure murder, just like Operation Rescue cofounder Randall Terry said we should.