A abortion rights activist who was on her way home from a conference on reproductive health access earlier this week missed her flight after American Airlines employees prevented her from boarding on the grounds that her T-Shirt could have been seen as offensive to other passengers.

Jodi Jacobson, editor-in-chief of the website RH Reality Check, who also attended the conference in Arlington, Va., writes on her blog that the woman was trying to get on a connecting flight but was given the boot for wearing a shirt containing a very direct rebuke of congressional meddling in women’s health.

“If I wanted the government in my womb, I’d fuck a senator,” the shirt read. The slogan comes from a sign hoisted at a March rally by an Oklahoma state senator in response to that state’s proposed “personhood” bill that would have defined conception as the beginning of life. (The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck it down before it could pass.)

The woman who was kept off the American Airlines flight yesterday, identified only as “O,” told Jacobson that she made her first flight out of Reagan Washington National Airport without any problems, but on the approach to the connecting airport a flight attendant said that the captain wanted a word with her. The subsequent chewing-out caused her to miss the next leg of her journey:

[O]n the plane of the first leg of my flight home, I spent the majority of [time] sleeping, using my shawl as a blanket. Right before we were set to land the flight attendant from first class approaches me and asks if I had a connecting flight? We were running a bit behind schedule, so I figured I was being asked this to be sure I would make my connecting flight. She then proceeded to tell me that I needed to speak with the captain before disembarking the plane and that the shirt I was wearing was offensive.

…

When I was leaving the plane the captain stepped off with me and told me I should not have been allowed to board the plane in DC and needed to change before boarding my next flight. This conversation led to me missing my connecting flight.

In response, Jacobson has launched an online petition to extract a public apology from American Airlines, saying that the carrier abrogated free speech and reinforced an environment in which “anti-choice, anti-woman, anti-gay protestors and harassers have free reign for their campaigns to control women.”

The airline has responded via Twitter, stating that Jacobson’s colleague “was asked to change T-Shirt only due to offensive language,” and not because of its political message.

But American Airlines has something of a reputation for being sartorially restrictive. Like other airlines, American takes into consideration its customers’ dress, but unlike many of its competitors, it also has wardrobe advice built directly into the carriage agreement it issues with tickets, CNN reported last year:

American Airlines has a broad mention of dress as a part of its conditions of carriage “because it is virtually impossible to write down or precisely delineate every situation that may, or may not, create an issue,” said spokesman Tim Smith.
American’s policy states that it can refuse to transport you, or may remove you from your flight for reasons including “being clothed in a manner that would cause discomfort or offense to other passengers.”
“The crew members have the discretion to try and solve a situation as they see fit,” Smith said. “If it cannot be worked out, the passenger will be denied boarding.