Uber says driver who flat-out refused to take woman to clinic for abortion was fired for reasons of ‘safety’

Uber revealed on Thursday that it fired a driver — who refused to take a woman to an abortion clinic — over safety reasons.

What are the details?

An unnamed Uber driver reportedly dropped a 20-year-old woman off on the side of the road when he found out that she was headed to an abortion clinic for an abortion.

The company said that the unnamed driver violated safety rules in dropping the female passenger off at a place other than her destination.

"Our Community Guidelines clearly lay out safety as a top priority and any actions that threaten the safety of drivers and rider will be investigated," a spokeswoman for the company told The Daily Caller in a statement. "Dropping someone off in the middle of nowhere threatens someone's safety."

The New York woman, who originally shared her account of the event on Reddit, said that her driver seemed to have a hunch that she was headed to an abortion clinic when he came to pick her up.

"My appointment was at 11:30 am so at 9:58 am my Uber arrived and he immediately seemed uncomfortable," she wrote. "After about five minutes in the car, he asked, '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," she added. "After a few more minutes he asked, 'Are we going to an abortion clinic?'"

"I was shocked," the woman admitted. "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.'"

The woman said that the Uber driver told her that she would "regret this decision for the rest of [her] life" and told her that she was making a grave mistake.

After more time went by, the driver pulled over on the side of the road and told the woman that he could not, in good conscience, take her to her destination. He offered to turn the car around and drive her back home, but insisted that he would not be making the trip to the clinic.

The 20-year-old woman then phoned her boyfriend, who called the clinic to tell them she would be late. She left the Uber and called a cab to complete the rest of the trip to the abortion clinic, and later reported the driver to Uber. She also reported the incident to the local police, according to her account of the event on Reddit.