Washington ? After two days of appealing to fellow GOP senators, embattled Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said he would make a public statement to assure Republicans at large he would not block anti-abortion judicial nominees from President Bush.

“I’m working on it,” Specter said of the statement after receiving more Senate support despite calls from anti-abortion conservatives that he be skipped over as the next chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Specter, a moderate on abortion rights, has been trying to repair the damage caused by his postelection comment that Democrats would probably block judicial nominees who would try to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case legalizing abortion.

“And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning,” he said after the Nov. 2 election.

Since then, he has sought to reassure Republicans that he would not stand in the way of Bush’s nominees if he took over the Judiciary Committee next year. The current chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is stepping down because of term limits.

Even as he campaigned to save his chairmanship, Specter lost his spot as one of the senators who must sign the compromise $388 billion spending bill being worked on by congressional negotiators. Specter, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which wrote the spending measure, now will have less leverage in reaching a final deal.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the move “has nothing to do with the chairmanship.”

Specter has gone on radio and television. He has told senators, individually and in groups, that he does not have a litmus test on abortion for judges. In addition, he has stressed that Democrats plan to filibuster against conservative judges regardless of what he does.

“People are looking to him to provide some assurance, so he’ll make a statement,” said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who is in line, in terms of seniority, to become the committee’s chairman if Specter is passed over.

Senators have said that there would have to be some kind of public reckoning for Specter to smooth over relations with abortion opponents, and to give them some political cover from the e-mails, faxes and phone calls they have been receiving.