Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In an interview with the CBS News program "60 Minutes" scheduled for broadcast tonight, pro-life Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says abortion was behind all of the attacks on him during his confirmation hearings. He called the confirmation process a "high tech lynching."

Thomas tells newsman Steve Kroft that the whole issue of alleged sexual harassment was a front for abortion advocates to attack him over the issue of abortion.

"That was the elephant in the room... That was the issue," he tells CBS News. "That is the issue that people are apparently so upset about."

"[That is the issue] that you determine the composition of your Supreme Court and your entire federal judiciary, it seems now," Justice Thomas adds.

The pro-life justice says what happened to him during the hearings was the beginning of a distortion of the confirmation process that is still hurting the nation.

"Things are out of control. That's not good for the country. It's not good for the court," he tells CBS. "What are we going to look like years from now if we can't get people confirmed because everybody gets to attack them. They get to draw and quarter them."

Thomas has been a reliable pro-life vote on the high court and joined with the 5-4 majority in April to uphold the national ban on partial-birth abortions.