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Whatever happens to “the right to refuse service”. But ah, rules only apply for “racist passengers”
“Drivers always have the right to refuse service to riders who are disrespectful or make them feel unsafe, as the driver in this case rightly did,” Uber said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “We’ve reached out to the driver to make sure she’s okay, and express our support for her and how she handled this situation. The rider has been permanently removed from our platform.”
A 20-year-old college student in New York is looking to sue her Uber driver after he refused to take her to get an abortion.
Yahoo! Style reports the Uber driver was also fired after the incident.
The student detailed her version of events in a Reddit message board.
“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,” she wrote.
But when her Uber driver showed up to take her to her appointment at an abortion clinic an hour away, the student said she could tell he “seemed uncomfortable.”
After a few minutes of driving, the driver asked her if they were going to an abortion clinic. When the student refused to answer, the driver tried to dissuade her from having an abortion.
He “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,’” the student explained.
“He then said ‘you’re going to regret this decision for the rest of your life’ and that I was making a mistake.”
The student said it took all her strength “not to cry” after hearing his warnings.
When they were halfway to the destination, the Uber driver pulled over in a rural area.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t take you the rest of the way,” the student recalled him saying. “I can take you back to (your city), but you won’t be able to find another Uber out here.”
The driver repeatedly offered to take her back home where she can find another Uber driver, but the student declined, called a cab, and had her abortion.
“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,” she said. “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,” the woman added.
The Uber representative also said her driver had a great record with the company “judging from his user ratings.”
However, the student wants to take further action against him.
“I reached out to a law firm and a few legal aid societies but nothing has happened,” she said.