WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor stuck by his strong comments against abortion and gays, garnering Democrats’ criticism for views they suggested would cloud his rulings as a federal appeals judge.

The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to approve Pryor’s appointment to Atlanta’s 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but some Democrats have hinted they might try to filibuster the nomination on the floor — a technique they’re using against some of President Bush’s judicial nominees.

“In reviewing the record of the nominee before us here today, I’m disappointed to say he looks more like the nine nominees I personally have voted against than the 119 I have voted for,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York). “His views are an unfortunate stitching together of the worst parts of the most troubling judges we’ve seen thus far.”

But even Pryor’s most outspoken critics acknowledged during his confirmation hearing that he was forthcoming with his answers, seldom backing away from past controversial statements.

Pryor also was grilled on his position on gay rights. In February, he filed a brief with the Supreme Court in a Texas sodomy case comparing homosexual acts to “prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography and even incest and pedophilia.”

He said that Justice Byron White used similar language in a 1986 Supreme Court case in which the court ruled 5-4 that Georgia’s criminal penalties against same-sex sodomy were constitutional.

But Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) suggested Pryor’s position against gays is deeper than one brief. He asked about a story that Pryor and his family rescheduled a trip to Disney World to avoid “Gay Day,” a weekend festival not sponsored by Disney but with events mainly at the Magic Kingdom theme park. Pryor acknowledged the story was true.

“My wife and I have two daughters who at the time were six and four years old,” Pryor said. “We made a value judgment.”