A student group sued Rhode Island College this week, accusing the public institution of violating its free-speech rights by removing signs from the campus that said, “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries.”

The Women’s Studies Organization hung the signs near a campus entrance last year to protest reports that some pharmacists had refused to fill prescriptions for contraceptives because of personal beliefs, the Associated Press reported. The text on the signs alludes to Roman Catholic doctrine, which bans the use of artificial means of birth control.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the group by the American Civil Liberties Union, followed a year of fruitless negotiations between students and administrators. The college says it prohibits student signs where the group had posted its message, but the students say the sign policy was arbitrarily enforced.