The Judiciary Committee’s vote today to approve Pryor’s re-nomination comes as the Senate grapples with the threat of the "nuclear option," a Republican effort to change two-century old Senate rules to make it easier for divisive nominees like Pryor to be approved for lifetime appointments on narrow, party-line votes.

"Confirming Bill Pryor to a lifetime appointment would do as much damage to the integrity of the federal court system as anything Tom DeLay could imagine, and today's vote is a clear admission by the Senate Republican leaders that they don’t care what the American people think," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "Mr. Pryor is the poster boy for out-of-control anti-choice activists who want to use the federal courts to impose their beliefs on others. His re-nomination along partisan lines shows that Senate Republicans continue to cave in to far-right groups that want to radically restructure the federal courts."

Pryor’s nomination failed to win Senate confirmation in 108th Congress, so President Bush used his recess appointment authority to add Pryor to the Eleventh Court of Appeals without the advice and consent of the Senate.

Pryor has an extensive history of anti-choice activism:

• Recalling his reaction to Roe v. Wade, Pryor has stated, "I will never forget Jan. 22, 1973, the day seven members of our highest court ripped the Constitution and ripped out the life of millions of unborn children." He has declared, "Abortion is murder, and Roe v. Wade is an abominable decision."
   
• Pryor has also said, "In the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court preserved the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history: Roe v. Wade." Based on this statement, Pryor apparently finds Roe v. Wade more offensive than even the Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court validated slavery.