If you are pregnant, you can now use Georgia’s High Occupancy Vehicle or HOV lanes. The restrictive state abortion law now recognizes embryos and fetuses as full legal persons.
The Georgia Department of Public Safety’s official requirements for the use of HOV lanes previously stated that “vehicles carrying two or more (living and not preborn) persons” may travel in them.
After a federal appeals court ruled on July 20 that Georgia’s restrictive abortion law could go into effect, it took DPS some time to remove the phrase “alive and not before infancy” from the requirements.
A spokesman for the DPS confirmed that pregnant women can now use the railways and no documents are required to prove the pregnancy.
In Georgia, embryos in which the ultrasound can pick up electrical impulses, which is usually around the sixth week of pregnancy, are considered “natural persons” under the new abortion law.
In addition to being counted as an additional passenger, fetuses and embryos are included in Georgia population counts and parents receive a $3,000 tax deduction for state taxpayers.
There is a lawsuit against Georgia’s abortion restrictions in a state court, but since a Supreme Court judge failed to issue an injunction, the law is now in effect as the case is heard.
