WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- The confirmation vote for the approval of Loretta Lynch as attorney general could be delayed over an anti-abortion provision found in a human-trafficking bill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Republican majority "does not want to take the language out" of the human-trafficking bill, which will help fund victims of human trafficking, that McConnell said is "extremely important to the country."
The provision in the bill points to a law that would deal with restrictions on the funding of abortions.
"We have to finish the human trafficking bill," McConnell said on CNN's State of the Union program. "The Loretta Lynch nomination comes next."
McConnell, who said he has not decided how he will vote on Lynch's nomination, said Congress will work on the budget this week and then in three weeks Congress will not be in session,
"It sounds like you are threatening to hold up Loretta Lynch, who has been in limbo for months and months," CNN host Dana Bash said.
"It's not a threat," McConnell said. "We need to finish this human-trafficking bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously."
Democrats accused Republicans of trying to sneak in the anti-abortion measure on the bill.
"Unfortunately, Republicans are committed to turning a bipartisan bill into a political fight," Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "We can have all kinds of debates out here as to how it got in the bill. A number of people feel it was by a little bit of sleight of hand."
