National Archives Makes Deal With Anti-Abortion Activists Who Sued the Agency

The National Archives made a deal with anti-abortion activists who filed a lawsuit against the federal agency.

According to the agreement filed in federal court Tuesday, the activists claim "they were instructed by security officers during their visit to remove or cover their attire because of their pro-life messages."

As a result, the National Archives and Records Administration has promised to adhere to a preexisting policy stating the agency "expressly allows all visitors to wear t-shirts, hats, buttons, and other similar items, that display protest language, including religious and political speech."

Additionally, activist Wendilee Lassiter will be provided a "personal tour of the National Archives Museum on February 17, 2023, and NARA staff shall extend Lassiter a personal apology on that tour."

CNN noted a judge still needs to approve the agreement.

Last week, the agency issued a statement addressing the incident.

"As the home to the original Constitution and Bill of Rights, which enshrine the rights of free speech and religion, we sincerely apologize for this occurrence," the agency said in the statement .

It continues, "NARA policy expressly allows all visitors to wear t-shirts, hats, buttons, etc. that display protest language, including religious and political speech. We are actively investigating to determine what happened."

According to the statement, "Early indications are that our security officers quickly corrected their actions and, from that point forward, all visitors were permitted to enter our facility without needing to remove or cover their attire. We have reminded all of our security officers at our facilities across the country of the rights of visitors in this regard."

A lawsuit was also recently filed against the National Air and Space Museum for a similar incident.

The Smithsonian said in a statement , “A security officer mistakenly told young visitors that their pro-life hats were not permitted in the museum. Asking visitors to remove hats and clothing is not in keeping with our policy or protocols. We provided immediate retraining to prevent a re-occurrence of this kind of error.”

The statement stressed the Smithsonian "welcomes all visitors without regard to their beliefs. We do not deny access to our museums based on the messages on visitors’ clothing.”

The close to a dozen Catholic plaintiffs in the lawsuit were made up of students, parents or chaperones from Our Lady of the Rosary Church and School in Greenville, South Carolina, CNBC reported.

All of them were reportedly wearing blue hats that said, “Rosary Pro-Life."

They were then asked to remove them at certain times or locations or leave the museum.