ITHACA, N.Y. — An Uber driver allegedly refused last month to take a college student to have her unborn child murdered after realizing that the address she had provided was that of an abortion facility.
The unidentified student posted about the matter on Reddit last month and also spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle last week. The woman is a 20-year-old sophomore at Cornell University and had recently been on Plan B to prevent pregnancy.
Last month, she discovered that she had become pregnant nonetheless. She decided to obtain an abortion as she didn’t feel that she was in a “position to care for a child at this point in [her] life,” and scheduled an appointment.
However, when her Uber driver arrived on March 21, he “seemed immediately uncomfortable.” Minutes into the ride, he asked if she was going to Planned Parenthood. She told him no, that it was just a doctor’s appointment.
“Is it an abortion clinic?” the driver allegedly inquired.
“The color drained from my face; how could he know?” the student recalled on Reddit. “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.”
As they rode along in the car, the man seemingly sought to reason with the student, as she says that he told her that she was going to “regret this decision for the rest of her life” and that she was making a mistake. He also shared about his wife, who is five months pregnant, and told her about what happens during an abortion.
She remained silent and held back tears.
The driver, who the student only identified as Scott, later pulled over near a gas station and antiques shop and advised that he could go no further. He offered to take her back. She declined and got out of the car.
The student then began calling taxi companies to seek another ride. The Uber driver reportedly waited at the location for approximately 15 minutes — the student believes — in hopes that she would change her mind. He again offered to take her back, but she refused, telling him that she would be fine.
Yahoo Lifestyle reports that the student went on to obtain the abortion. She said that she filed a report with the Ithaca Police Department but was told that the man didn’t commit a crime in declining to take her to the abortion facility. The student also contacted Uber to complain, which resulted in Scott being banned as a driver.
She opined in her post that while she was brought up in a conservative family, “your beliefs do not give you the right to make me feel uncomfortable when I’m completely vulnerable and am relying on you to perform a service I desperately need.” The student has also posted in another Reddit forum that she is seeking to pursue legal action against the driver.
Proverbs 24:11-12 states, “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain, if thou sayest, ‘Behold, we knew it not,’ doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? And He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? And shall not He render to every man according to his works?”
New York has a safe haven law that allows mothers to leave their newborn child at a hospital, police station or fire station with no questions asked and without any penalty. The infant will then be placed in a loving home and made available for adoption.
A page on the New York State Office of Children and Family Services website states, “In New York State, there are many prospective adoptive families searching for a child to become a part of their family. If you are considering the option not to parent your child, adoption will provide your child with a safe and loving home.”
Adopting a child from government foster care is free, as compared to private or overseas adoptions.
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