By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court accused the court's liberal majority, all women, of being “driven by their emotions” during oral arguments in an abortion rights case — comments his challenger's campaign on Friday called “disgusting.”

Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican attorney general, faces Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge backed by Democrats, in the high-stakes April 1 election.

Abortion has been a key issue in the race. Schimel opposes abortion rights and Crawford supports them. Both candidates have said they would be impartial if the issue comes before the court.

The winner will determine whether the highest court in the battleground state remains controlled by liberal justices as it's expected to rule in cases affecting abortion, unions rights, congressional redistricting and election laws. The election could also serve as an early litmus test for Republicans and Democrats after President Donald Trump won every swing state, including Wisconsin.

Schimel spoke out against the four liberal justices during a Nov. 12 radio interview, the day after oral arguments in case challenging the state's 1849 abortion ban. Crawford, who has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, brought a different case seeking to protect abortion rights when she was a private practice attorney working for a liberal firm.

Schimel's comments were first reported Friday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“There were times that when that camera went on several of the liberal justices, they were on the brink of losing it," Schimel said on WSAU-AM. “You could see it in their eyes, and you could hear it in the tone of their voice. They are being driven by their emotions. A Supreme Court justice had better be able to set their personal opinions and their emotions aside and rule on the law objectively. This is — we don’t have that objectivity on this court.”

The four justices, in a statement Friday, accused Schimel of having “an antiquated and distorted view of women.”

“By suggesting that women get too emotional and are unfit to serve as judges and justices, he turns back decades of progress for women,” their statement said. "These petty and personal attacks have no place in our campaigns and courtrooms, and are just one more reason that we have endorsed Susan Crawford for Justice.”

The four justices are Jill Karofsky, Ann Walsh Bradley, Rebecca Dallet and Janet Protasiewicz. Bradley's retirement created the open seat that Crawford and Schimel are battling over. The winner is elected to a 10-year term.

Schimel's campaign did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Friday.

But Schimel on Thursday told the Journal Sentinel that he didn’t bring up gender in his analysis of the oral arguments. He called the statement from the liberal justices “out of bounds” and “nonsense," the newspaper reported.

“It’s plainly clear that that one of the justices, at least, was not able to stay objective. She had lost control of her emotions,” Schimel said after a roundtable talk at the GOP’s Hispanic center in Milwaukee. “Men do that, too, but she could not stay objective. In that case, she was literally yelling at an attorney.”

Schimel said he was referring to Karofsky. She did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Crawford's campaign spokesperson, Derrick Honeyman, said Schimel's comments were “disgusting insults" and “part of a pattern of disturbing behavior and extremism that has no place in our state, and certainly not on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”