Photo: Sergio Flores/Getty
At least three major companies — GoDaddy, Uber, and Lyft — are taking steps to defend customers against Texas' controversial new abortion law.
Under the law, abortions are bannedafter about six weeks of pregnancy— before many expecting women would even know they were pregnant. Anyone that attempts to assist those looking to do so is at risk of prosecution as well.
On Friday, GoDaddy spokesman Dan Race confirmed that the website hosting service gave the state 24 hours to find a new host for their website due to violating their terms of service, according toNPR.
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During its brief existence, several users on TikTok and Reddit inundated the site with fake tips. Among those accused of violating the law included Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who championed the bill, and numerous characters from the fictional Marvel Cinematic Universe, according toThe New York Times.
Texas Right to Life spokeswoman Kimberlyn Schwartz said the group’s IT team was “already in process of transferring our assets to another provider” and promised to have the site restored within 24 to 48 hours, per theTimes.
In a statement released Friday, Lyft called the burden put on both drivers and riders under the new law “completely unacceptable.”
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“We want to be clear: Drivers are never responsible for monitoring where their riders go or why,“the statement said, later noting 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 company also promised to donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood “to help ensure that transportation is never a barrier to healthcare access.”
Lyft founder and CEO Logan Greenshared an abridged versionof the statement in a thread on Twitter. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi hopped on board a short time later.
“Right on @logangreen — drivers shouldn’t be put at risk for getting people where they want to go. Team @Uber is in too and will cover legal fees in the same way,“he wrote in response, thanking Green “for the push.”
Protestors march in Texas to fight the new abortion law.Sergio Flores/Getty
As noted in Lyft’s statement, both drivers and passengers are at risk of prosecution under the new law.
“Similarly, riders never have to justify, or even share, where they are going and why,” the statement continued. “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.”
Netflix took similar steps in 2019 after Georgia passed its own controversial abortion bill mirrored in the current Texas law. The legislation banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the supposed time when a doctor can allegedly detect a fetal heartbeat.
Pro-choice and anti-abortion protestors face off outside the Supreme Court.Drew Angerer/Getty
After the bill became law, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos suggested the company would pull production from Georgia should the restrictions on women’s health ever go into effect.
In a 5 to 4 decision, theU.S. Supreme Court refused to blockTexas' new abortion law late Wednesday night, essentially eliminating the rights established in Roe v. Wade in Texas. It is now considered the most restrictive abortion law in the country.
source: people.com
