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Republican lawmakers in Indiana promised Monday to amend a religious liberties bill that critics have labeled as anti-gay, bowing to protests that have rapidly spread to several other states considering similar measures.

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) said the legislature would act as soon as this week to clarify the states new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which grants individuals and businesses legal grounds to defend themselves against claims of discrimination. The fix, Bosma said, would make clear that the law does not allow people to discriminate against gays, as critics contend.

Opponents of the measure say the fix suggested by Bosma and other Republicans is vague and probably insufficient. Meanwhile, criticism of the act, signed into law last week by Gov. Mike Pence (R), continued to mount.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook condemned the new law in an op-ed published in The Washington Post. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) wrote a letter to the Indianapolis Star inviting business leaders troubled by the law to move to Virginia. The president of the NCAA hinted that the Indiana-based athletic organization may stop holding major events there. And the rock band Wilco canceled a May 7 show in Indianapolis.

AP Photo/Michael Conroy Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, left, and House Speaker Brian C. Bosma, R-Indianapolis, discuss their plans for clarifying the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act during a press conference at the Statehouse in Indianapolis on Monday. The pressure was reverberating in other states, where some Republican leaders either postponed consideration of their own religious freedom laws or disavowed them outright.

In Georgia, lawmakers canceled a hearing scheduled for Monday morning on their version of the bill. In Arkansas, lawmakers debated tweaking a bill that passed the Senate last week, perhaps limiting its reach in order to stir up less controversy. And in North Carolina, Gov. Pat McCrory (R) said he was not inclined to sign a bill working its way through the statehouse.

What is the problem theyre trying to solve? McCrory said Monday on WFAEs Charlotte Talks radio program. The bill, he said, would make no sense.

The debate injected a divisive new issue into the 2016 presidential campaign, presenting Republican hopefuls with a difficult choice: publicly back Pence on an issue that threatens to hurt the GOP among the majority of Americans who support gay rights, or side with the GOPs business wing against the law and risk angering base conservatives.

In recent days, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), former Texas governor Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have all spoken approvingly of the Indiana law; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been more circumspect. Likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has criticized it.

The debate also shines a spotlight on other Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, which are in force at the federal level and in 19 states besides Indiana. The federal law was signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and state versions have had broad support from both parties.

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Indiana to clarify new law decried as anti-gay