Air travelers walk to a Lyft pickup area at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on August 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Lyft said Friday it would cover legal fees for drivers on its platform who are sued under the Texas abortion restrictive law that went into effect this week.
The law prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a period before many women have even discovered they are pregnant.
Patients cannot be sued, but people who help with the procedure, including doctors, people who pay for the procedure, and clinic workers, are at risk. This includes car drivers who can be punished for transporting women to clinics to receive abortions, where they could receive a $ 10,000 fine.
“Drivers are never responsible for controlling where their drivers are going or why. Imagine being a driver and not knowing if you are breaking the law by taking a step away from someone,” the company said in a statement. “In the same way, pilots should never justify, or even share, where they are going and why. Imagine being a pregnant woman trying to get to a health appointment and not knowing if your driver is canceling you. he will be afraid to break a law. Both are completely unacceptable. “
It is the first car-sharing company on the subject. Uber, Lyft’s main competitor, did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment this week.
“This is an attack on women’s access to health care and their right to choose,” Lyft CEO Logan Green said in a tweet Friday. Activists and abortion rights providers argue that the law effectively overturns the protections established under Roe against Wade in 1973.
Lyft said its defense fund would cover 100% of the legal fees drivers incur due to the law. The company will also donate $ 1 million to Planned Parenthood.
“TX SB8 threatens to punish drivers for taking people where they need to go, especially women exercising their right to choose,” Green said in the tweet.
So far companies have been relatively quiet about it. Shar Dubey, CEO of Texas dating companies Bumble and Match, responded to the measure on Thursday, announcing each of them aid funds.
“Surely everyone should see the danger of this highly punitive and unjust law that does not even make an exception for victims of rape or incest. I would not like our state to take this big step back in the rights of women. women, ”Dubey wrote in a note to employees this week.
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