Lyft Will Back Drivers Sued Under Texas Abortion Law

Lizette Chapman, Bloomberg News

A Lyft Inc. light sits on the dashboard of a vehicle in the Time Square neighborhood of New York, U.S., on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Simmering tensions between drivers and ride-hailing companies are flaring again, as drivers in major cities across the U.S. and the U.K. went on strike Wednesday over low wages and unstable working conditions. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Lyft Inc. said it would pay legal fees for any driver sued under Texas’ new restrictive abortion law and announced a $1 million donation to Planned Parenthood.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Logan Green announced Friday the creation of a Driver Legal Defense Fund to cover 100% of legal fees incurred by drivers sued for transporting women to get abortions. Green, in a tweet, also announced the Planned Parenthood donation to ensure that “transportation is never a barrier to health care access” and invited other companies to do the same. “This is an attack on women’s access to health care and their right to choose,” Green wrote in the tweet.

Texas has banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, but has left it to private parties to sue to enforce the law. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week rejected, by a 5-4 vote, a request to put the law on hold while its constitutional issues are litigated. The measure, which went into effect Wednesday, makes anyone who helps a women get an abortion in the state potentially liable.

Green and Lyft General Counsel Kristin Sverchek, in a message posted on the company’s blog, said “Drivers are never responsible for monitoring where their riders go or why. This law is incompatible with people’s basic rights to privacy, our community guidelines, the spirit of rideshare, and our values as a company.”

Other companies have responded to developments in Texas. Texas Right to Life, a group that opposes abortion rights, set up a website encouraging people to “enforce” the legislation by sending anonymous tips or information about alleged violations of the act. GoDaddy Inc., which provides web-hosting services, said it informed Texas Right to Life on Thursday that it needs to find a new hosting provider within 24 hours because it violated the terms of service.

Texas Right to Life didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.