“A proposed bill in Virginia would allow a pregnant woman’s fetus to count as a person when traveling in a car, which would therefore allow them to use High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in the Commonwealth,” WUSA reports. The legislation would require that the woman certify her pregnancy and have the information linked to her transponder account. A similar bill was introduced last year in Texas, after a woman contested a citation for violating HOV 2+ rules in Dallas on the basis that her fetus was the second person in her car. The Texas Legislature did not advance that bill, and the Virginia proposal is not expected to get traction.
NBC News also reports on the Virginia bill, giving more consideration to its political context as well as the societal implications of so-called personhood laws.