Texas state law currently requires anyone using high-occupancy vehicle lanes to have two or more occupants. Still, the proposed bill would alter the Texas transportation code and allow pregnant drivers access "regardless of whether the vehicle is occupied by a passenger other than the operator's unborn child."

The Texas Penal Code states an unborn child is considered a person "at every stage of gestation from fertilisation until birth." 

There has been fierce debate around whether pregnant women can use the carpool lane since the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Several states are grappling with the legal complications of what now constitutes a person and how that affects other aspects of policy.

Texas wouldn't be the first U.S. state to consider the move, with Georgia opening its HOV lanes to pregnant women in 2022.