WASHINGTON – A growing number of Republican senators are calling for a delay on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation vote until they have time to hear from a woman accusing the judge of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school.

Christine Blasey Ford, 51, came forward publicly Sunday with a detailed account in The Washington Post of an incident that took place at a party when she was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17. Ford claims Kavanaugh held her down and tried to remove her clothes while covering her mouth with his hand and leading her to believe that he could "inadvertently kill me."

USA TODAY does not normally name accusers of sexual assault, but in this case, Ford forward publicly to detail her allegations.

The story of the alleged assault first appeared in a New Yorker magazine article last week, but Ford was not identified. Since the story surfaced, Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.

In light of the allegations, a number of senators have said they didn't want to move forward with advancing Kavanaugh's nomination until they heard from Ford.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement Monday that anyone "who comes forward as Dr. Ford has deserves to be heard." Still, his statement did not address whether the committee would go forward with the nomination on Thursday as planned.

Grassley said the "standard procedure" for handling late updates to "any nominee's background investigation file is to conduct separate follow-up calls with relevant parties" Grassley he was trying to arrange calls with Kavanaugh and Ford. But he said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., refused to help him set the calls up.

"Unfortunately, committee Republicans have only known this person's identity from news reports for less than 24 hours and known about her allegations for less than a week," Grassley said. "Senator Feinstein, on the other hand, has had this information for many weeks and deprived her colleagues of the information necessary to do our jobs."

He added that it was "deeply disturbing" that the allegations were "leaked in a way that seemed to preclude Dr. Ford’s confidentiality" and lamented that Ford and Katz did not directly approach him with the allegations earlier.

During an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Ford's lawyer, Debra Katz, said her client was willing to testify.

For his part, Kavanaugh released a statement Monday saying that he would be willing to talk to the committee "in any way the Committee deems appropriate to refute this false allegation, from 36 years ago, and defend my integrity."

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the committee members, said he does not think the committee should advance Kavanaugh's nomination until Ford is heard out.

"If they push forward without any attempt with hearing what she's had to say, I'm not comfortable voting yes," Flake told Politico on Sunday. "We need to hear from her. And I don't think I'm alone in this."

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who, like Flake, is retiring, told Politico that it "would be best for all involved, including the nominee" if the committee delayed a vote. "If she does want to be heard, she should do so promptly."

When asked if she believed if the vote should be delayed, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told CNN on Sunday, "I think that might be something they might have to consider."

"This is not something that came up during the hearings," she said, according to CNN. "The hearings are now over, and if there is real substance to this, it demands a response."

Although Murkowski and Corker are not on the Judiciary Committee, Republicans only have a narrow, 51-seat majority in the Senate and every vote will be crucial to Kavanaugh's final confirmation. The Senate could bypass the committee and bring Kavanaugh's nomination directly to the floor for a vote.

Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Maine Republican whom groups opposed to Kavanaugh have desperately tried to sway, said in a tweet Monday that both Ford and Kavanaugh "should both testify under oath before the Judiciary Committee. "

On Monday, Collins told CNN she was "very surprised" by the allegation against Kavanaugh.

She said she spoke to Kavanaugh about the allegations in a phone call Friday and that the judge was "very emphatic in his denial." When asked if the vote should be delayed, she said she would be talking to her colleagues, and when asked if she believed the accuser, she said she did not "know enough to make a judgment at this point."

Collins told The New York Times on Sunday that she found it "puzzling" that Democrats did not come forward with the allegations earlier, "after having had this information for more than six weeks."

"If they believed Professor Ford, why didn’t they surface this information earlier so that he could be questioned about it?" Collins asked. "And if they didn’t believe her and chose to withhold the information, why did they decide at the 11th hour to release it? It is really not fair to either of them the way it is was handled."

Feinstein, a Judiciary Committee member, announced Thursday she had forwarded a letter containing the allegations to the FBI, a day before the article in The New Yorker.

Many Democrats were calling for a delay on Kavanaugh's confirmation before the allegation surfaced, but they have ramped up those demands in light of the accusation.

"For too long, when women have made serious allegations of abuse, they have been ignored," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a tweet on Sunday. "That cannot happen in this case."