The second-ranking Democrat in the Senate on Wednesday said that by stalling on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, the first African American woman to be nominated for US attorney general, Republicans were forcing her to “sit in the back of the bus”.

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The Illinois senator Dick Durbin invoked the Rosa Parks analogy during a speech on the Senate floor amid a heated debate over a human trafficking bill. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has said he will not proceed with Lynch’s confirmation until work is complete on the human trafficking bill, which was filibustered by Democrats on Tuesday because of objections to the insertion of anti-abortion language.

Durbin assailed Republicans for dragging out the confirmation process for Lynch, who was nominated by Barack Obama in November.

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“Loretta Lynch, the first African American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar,” said Durbin, who serves as the Senate Democratic whip. “That is unfair. It’s unjust. It is beneath the decorum and dignity of the US Senate.”

“This is the first African American woman in the history of the United States to be nominated to serve as attorney general. It is a civil rights milestone,” he added. “Why has the Senate Republican leadership decided to target this good woman and to stop her from serving as the first African American woman attorney general of the United States of America? There is no good reason. There is no substantive reason.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Senate minority whip, Dick Durbin, has invoked images of Rosa Parks and the civil rights struggle in the controversy over Loretta Lynch’s confirmation. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Lynch’s nomination was cleared by a Senate committee last month, but timing on a floor vote remains uncertain. Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell, said Lynch’s confirmation is next on the schedule.

“The only thing holding up that vote is the Democrats’ filibuster of a bill that would help prevent kids from being sold into sex slavery,” Stewart said in an email. “The sooner they allow the Senate to pass that bipartisan bill, the sooner the Senate can move to the Lynch nomination.”

The human trafficking bill originally shared broad support, but Democrats objected to a provision they say was quietly tucked into the language by Republicans barring the use of federal funds for abortions. Democrats said the human trafficking debate is merely another excuse by Republicans to continue what is turning into a historic delay for an attorney general nominee.

The North Carolina representative GK Butterfield, a Democrat who heads the Congressional Black Caucus, also raised the possibility that race might have something to do with the hold-up on Lynch.

“I think race certainly can be considered as a major factor in the reason for this delay, but it’s also the irrationality of the new Republicans,” Butterfield said in a conference call on Tuesday. “I speak for the Congressional Black Caucus and I can tell you that the CBC is disturbed – that’s putting it mildly – we are greatly disturbed that this confirmation has now taken more than four months to work its way through the Senate.”