Indiana's Republican Governor Mike Pence, responding to national outrage over the state's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, said on Tuesday he will "fix" it to make clear businesses cannot use it to deny services to same-sex couples.
Pence, in a news conference, said the law he signed last week had been widely mischaracterized and "smeared" but he called on the state's Republican-controlled General Assembly to send a new law to his desk this week to fix it.
"I believe it would be appropriate to make it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone," he told reporters in the state capital, Indianapolis.
"We will fix this and we will move forward," Pence told the nationally televised conference.
Pence faces widespread outrage over the bill, which passed with an overwhelming majority in the state's legislature.
The Indianapolis Star newspaper published a front-page editorial headlined "FIX THIS NOW" in giant type.
But Pence defended the law as protecting people of all faiths from being forced by government to go against their beliefs and said repeatedly it had never been meant to discriminate against anyone.
Major companies including Wal-Mart Stores, Apple, Angie's List, diesel engine-maker Cummins Inc, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and drug-maker Eli Lilly and Co have called on him to clarify or repeal the law.