(LifeSiteNews) – Ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft have promised to pay the legal fees for drivers who are sued under Texas’ recently implemented heartbeat law.
Senate Bill 8 allows private individuals to sue people responsible for helping women obtain an abortion after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected. This could include the abortionist, but also someone who drives a woman to the abortion facility.
Lyft CEO Logan Green said his company “has created a Driver Legal Defense Fund to cover 100% of legal fees for drivers sued under SB8 while driving on our platform.”
“This is an attack on women’s access to healthcare and on their right to choose,” Green said. He said his company will also donate $1 million to abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
He also tweeted a link to Planned Parenthood and encouraged people to donate.
Fellow ride-share CEO Dara Khosrowshahi echoed Green’s commitment to helping people who aid and abet criminal abortions.
“Right on @logangreen – drivers shouldn’t be put at risk for getting people where they want to go,” the Uber CEO said on Twitter. He said the company “is in too and will cover legal fees in the same way. Thanks for the push.”
Lyft’s leadership team shared a longer statement on a blog post.
“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,” the two co-founders and its general counsel said.
“Similarly, riders never have to justify, or even share, where they are going and why,” the blog post said. “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. Both are completely unacceptable.”
Uber has previously fired a New York driver for refusing to drive a woman to an abortion facility.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t take you the rest of the way. I can take you back to [the city], but you won’t be able to find another Uber out here,” the unidentified driver told a college student who was seeking an abortion.
Other companies or business leaders in Texas have said they will donate to support legal efforts against the pro-life laws or have said they do not plan to oppose the law.
Shar Dubey, the CEO of the Match group, which operates dating apps like Tinder, said she would be creating a fund to help people get abortions out of the state, according to Market Watch. She clarified that this statement, sent in a company memo, was her personal comment.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk “consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a recent statement, when asked about potential business protests of the Lone Star State over its pro-life law. “In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness,” Musk said in response. “That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics.”