A woman was left traumatised by an Uber driver who refused to take her to an abortion appointment.
The anonymous 20-year-old student from New York shared a post on Reddit describing the incident, explaining how she was left praying the driver wouldn’t hurt her.
In the post the woman, known only as Reddit user ‘molesterstall0ne’, said she had an appointment booked for a non surgical abortion at a doctor’s surgery which was an hour away from her home.
Calling an Uber, the driver immediately made the young woman uncomfortable asking if she was going to an abortion clinic.
Although she refused to answer, as the woman explained on Reddit the driver kept pushing the subject:
The colour drained from my face; how could he know? I just put the address of the doctor in, and there was nothing in the name that would imply it was an abortion clinic. He stared at me, waiting for an answer, but I was too shocked to reply.
I couldn’t believe this was happening, and now I was trapped in the car with this guy for the next hour. ‘You know’ he said, ‘you’re going to regret this decision for the rest of your life.’ He started telling me about the procedure, what it was like, telling me how horrible it was. ‘
‘There’s so much they don’t tell you. You’re making a mistake.’ He brought up his wife, who was 5 months pregnant, but trailed off. I just sat there in silence. We were driving through rural land, miles from any kind of house or storefront. I prayed he wouldn’t hurt me.
The driver then took things further, pulling over on the side of a road, asking the woman to get out of the car.
Apologising he couldn’t take her any further, the driver added she ‘won’t find another Uber out here’ offering to take her back if she wanted.
The post continued:
I politely declined and got out of the car. I immediately started calling local taxi companies and asked if they could pick me up. My phone gave me a rough location which I gave them as my pickup address.
My Uber driver waited around for about 15 minutes, assuming I’d change my mind. I insisted I was fine and that he should go back and he eventually left. After waiting about 25 minutes, the cab showed up and I got to my appointment (an hour late).
Reporting the driver to Uber, they refunded the ride and told the woman his account was being ‘reviewed’.
The woman admitted ‘even thinking about this experience brings tears to [her] eyes’, adding that although the man has a right to a different opinion, he had no right to make her feel uncomfortable or actively defy her exercising her own free will.
She hopes Uber takes ‘appropriate action’ after reviewing the driver’s account.
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