Ride-hailing app Lyft will cover 100% of legal fees for drivers sued under Texas’ new restrictive abortion law SB8, which empowers individuals to sue a person giving a woman a ride to get the now-illegal procedure.
In a statement released late Friday, co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer said the law is “incompatible with people’s basic rights to privacy, our community guidelines, the spirit of rideshare, and our values as a company.”
The Texas law, which took effect Wednesday, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks and before many women know they’re pregnant. While a dozen states have tried to enact bans early in pregnancy, those laws have been blocked by courts.
Texas may have found an end-run around the federal courts by enacting an unusual enforcement scheme that authorizes private citizens to file lawsuits in state court against abortion providers and anyone involved in aiding an abortion, including someone who drives a woman to a clinic. The law includes a minimum award of $10,000 for a successful lawsuit, but does not have government officials criminally enforce the law.
In order to protect both drivers and customers, Lyft has created a legal defense fund that will cover the entire cost of a lawsuit should a driver be sued. The company is also donating $1 million to Planned Parenthood.
“We want to be clear: Drivers are never responsible for monitoring where their riders go or why. Imagine being a driver and not knowing if you are breaking the law by giving someone a ride,” Green and Zimmer wrote in part.
“Similarly, riders never have to justify, or even share, where they are going and why,” they added. “Imagine being a pregnant woman trying to get to a healthcare appointment and not knowing if your driver will cancel on you for fear of breaking a law.”
In a statement shared to Twitter, Green encouraged other companies to join Lyft’s effort.
Taxi drivers and those employed by Uber, as well as a private driver, could also be sued under the new law. It allows any private citizen to sue Texas abortion providers who violate the law, as well as anyone who “aids or abets” a woman getting the procedure. Abortion patients themselves, however, cannot be sued.
Following Green's Twitter post, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi committed to do the same in terms of legal fees.
"Right on, @logangreen - drivers shouldn’t be put at risk for getting people where they want to go," Khosrowshahi wrote on Twitter. "Team @Uber is in too and will cover legal fees in the same way. Thanks for the push."
Spectrum News has reached out to Uber for a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.