Abortion is legal in this country, but that fact apparently doesn’t register with everyone. There are still people who think they know better than any given woman confronted with the decision to terminate a pregnancy. These people don’t personally support abortion and feel the moral superiority to impose their own beliefs, regardless of what a woman decides.
Take, for example, this horrible Uber driver who refused to take a customer to her abortion appointment.
The customer, a college student who posted her story on Reddit started by explaining that she needed a ride because she doesn’t have a car on campus.
I’m in college in upstate NY and I don’t have a car on campus because it’s expensive. I’m 20 years old and I found out I was pregnant and subsequently decided I wanted an abortion because I’m in no position to care for a child.
There is a Planned Parenthood very close to my university, but the earliest appointment they had was a week away, and I found a clinic an hour away that had availability in three days, so I opted to go there instead.
While there was a Planned Parenthood nearby, another clinic had an appointment available sooner.
Because I don’t have a car, I rely on Uber and lyft to get me places. My appointment was at 11:30am so at 9:58am my Uber arrived and he immediately seemed uncomfortable. After about five minutes in the car, heasked, “are we going to a planned parenthood?” I said no (because we weren’t), but it set off alarm bells that he would even ask that. The destination I put in was just the name of the doctor and the address of the clinic, there was nothing that would suggest it was an abortion clinic. After a few more minutes he asked, “are we going to an abortion clinic?
When he figured out where he was taking her, the Uber driver, who had “seemed uncomfortable,” made some seriously upsetting, invasive statements about how the woman would regret her decision.
I was shocked; I had no idea what to say, so I just remained quiet. He then said “I know it’s none of my business, but…” and proceeded to mention something about his wife being pregnant, how awful the procedure was (and proceeded to explain it in graphic detail), and that “there is so much they don’t tell you”. He then said “you’re going to regret this decision for the restof your life” and that I was making a mistake.
After they were halfway there, he decided he wouldn’t go the rest of the way. Can you even imagine?
It took all of my strength not to start crying but I managed to keep it together by looking out the window and avoiding his gaze. After we were about halfway to the destination, he suddenly pulls over with no warning. There was a gas station and a closed antiques store, and around us was farmland and forest. He said “I’m sorry, but I can’t take you the rest of the way. I can take you back to [my city], but you won’t be able to find another Uber out here.”
I got out of the car and immediately started crying. I called my parents each three times but they didn’t pick up. Then I called my boyfriend and he picked up right away. He managed to calm me down and told me to let the clinic know what was happening and to call some local cab companies.
My Uber driver hung around for about 10-15 minutes and asked once more if I wanted to go back with him and I declined. After he left, a cab came and I got to my appointment (an hour late).
She reported the driver to Uber and the driver did lose his job. But the woman wondered if there were a way she could pursue legal action against him.
I reported the driver to Uber and the next day I filed a police report with my city’s police department. Someone on Uber’s team got in touch with me after I told them about the police report and called me to get a detailed account of what happened. I told them everything on a call that was recorded, and the rep mentioned that it appeared the driver had taken a less direct route to get me to my destination prior to dropping me off.
Within a few days they reached out again and told me the driver had been banned from Uber. They also mentioned that it didn’t appear he’d ever done this before judging from his user ratings. However, I’d like to pursue further legal action against the driver if at all possible. Do I have a case? What should my next steps be?
I reached out to a law firm and a few legal aid societies but nothing has happened. I’m not sure what I should do now.
The post was actually written twice—once in the “TwoXChromosomes” subReddit and again in one called “LegalAdvice.”
Although pretty much everyone agreed that he was awful, people didn’t seem to think she had a case against the driver.
If you have an quantifiable damages (monetary loss), then you could potentially sue the driver for those. In this situation, it is extremely unlikely (like 0.00000001% chance) that you’ll get anything for “pain and suffering” if that is what you are thinking.
If you have already made the complaint to the police, they will decide if the driver committed any crimes (also extremely unlikely).
I know it sucks but I don’t think there is anything else you can do here.
No. Uber handled it, that’s all that can be done. Civilly, you’d need to sue for damages but it doesn’t seem like you have any damages. If you had to pay for the ride, contact Uber to get your money back, you’d have the best luck with them. Otherwise, you were picked up by someone else, still attended the appointment. Other than being shaken up, it doesn’t seem like you had monetary or other damages from what happened.
One person mentioned that she could also send the man’s name to Lyft, to hopefully keep him from getting a job there.
But over on the other thread, the college student at least got some wonderful, supportive comments. She also got people outraged on her behalf.
So a medical abortion performed by legitimate doctors is less safe than just dropping a woman off in an unknown area with no way of getting anywhere?
Where are his priorities.
His priorities are being a self-righteous dipshit and making women uncomfortable.
He cares so much for unborn life that he decided to abandon her (and the embryo) in the middle of nowhere. What a class act
You see, an abortion kills a potential baby, which he cares about until it is born. When he dropped her off he was only hurting a woman, which as we all know is the lowest form of life.
The woman’s original post on Reddit was titled, “The worst, most backward day of my life,” and yup, that sounds about right. It really sucks that she had to deal with the idiot driver and especially, especially on a day that was already stressful enough for her. While she probably can’t sue the guy, at least she can spread the word to competing companies about what a jerk he is.
h/t: Reddit, Someecards