The bill, number 1894, which was offered to the General Assembly of Virginia on Wednesday, says that “any pregnant woman shall be considered two people for determining occupancy in high-occupancy vehicle lanes.”

The proposed bill would allow pregnant women access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOVs)—less crowded carriageways reserved for drivers with one or more passengers, designed to promote carpooling—and high-occupancy toll lanes (HOTs), which typically exempt drivers from road-use charges.

However, the mechanism by which it uses to do so, rather than simply allow for pregnant women to drive in HOVs and HOTs, is to define one as two separate riders, implying that the fetus is a distinct person.

“This is an insidious bill, because on its face, of course, most people would like to use the HOV lanes and pay less for using express lanes that have tolls on them, and that is something we might think can appeal to a certain demographic,” Tarina Keene, executive director of Repro Rising Virginia, a local abortion-rights advocacy group, told Newsweek. “But when you read it, you do see how insidious this bill really is.”

“What its real intention is here—and they try to do this a lot of different ways, the anti-abortion politicians—is they draft legislation that looks like, on its face, it has good intentions, but its really being used to push this idea of personhood,” Keene said. “It’s being used to say life begins at conception. If something like this were to pass […] you are really taking away the rights of a pregnant person.”

Some anti-abortion advocates have been pushing for laws granting fetuses the same legal rights and protections as a person. The idea is that life begins at conception. Granting personhood to fertilized eggs, embryos or fetuses aims to eliminate exceptions to abortion bans, such as rape and incest. Not all anti-abortion activists agree with this strategy. Opponents warn against potential wide-ranging consequences, for instance, that women who miscarry could face criminal prosecution. Abortion-rights activists also point to in vitro fertilization, arguing personhood laws could grant rights to embryos that end up frozen.

Newsweek contacted Nicholas Freitas, a Republican delegate in Virginia’s lower house, who introduced the bill, for comment.

Abortion aims to be a hot topic in many state legislatures reconvening in 2023, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 gave individual states the power to regulate aspects of pregnancy termination not already protected by federal law—effectively overturning its decision in Roe v. Wade.

Virginia currently allows abortion up to the end of the second trimester of pregnancy (around 26 weeks), and only beyond that if three licensed physicians certifying that the continued pregnancy would result in the death or ill health of the mother, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. However, abortion in the state does not benefit from constitutional or statutory protections.

After the Democrats took control of both of Virginia’s legislative houses in 2019, many of the roadblocks to abortion—including the requirement for a 24-hour waiting period between appointments before an abortion can go ahead—were removed.

Prior to that, when the General Assembly was under Republican control, in 2017, it enacted a resolution designating the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling (January 22) as a day of mourning for “the innocents who have lost their lives to abortion.”

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has mooted a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions. “As a pro-life governor, I have really reflected on my own faith and my beliefs, and I do believe that there should be exceptions made in the case of rape and incest, and when the life of the mother is truly at risk,” he told CBS in July 2022.

Republican delegates narrowly retook Virginia’s lower house by 52 to 48 in 2021, but its senate remains a slim Democrat majority, meaning forging legislation on abortion may result in stalemate. Youngkin has called for a bipartisan effort on the issue, but the Virginia Republican leadership remains gloomy over the prospect. The bill

“I would be very surprised if anything of substance comes out of this General Assembly on that issue,” Todd Gilbert, Virginia’s Republican House of Delegates speaker told reporters on Monday, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.