'I abhor discrimination,' Pence wrote in an op-ed. Pence slams liberals as he stands by 'religious freedom' law

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence continued to defend the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act on Tuesday, slamming the way liberals and some in the national media have characterized the law.

“I stand by this law, but I understand that they way that some on the left and frankly, some in the national media have mischaracterized this law over the last week might make it necessary for us to clarify the law through legislation,” the Republican governor said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” from Indianapolis.


Pence was also asked to respond to remarks by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who wrote Monday that racists once used their religion to justify their beliefs.

“The blatant use of religion has always been a tool of bigots,” Sharpton wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed.

“With regard to that claim, let me say, five years ago, my wife, my three children and I walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with John Lewis when I co-chaired the pilgrimage to march for the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday,” Pence said.

Pence’s remarks on Tuesday morning follow an interview with ABC on Sunday as well as a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Monday night in which he expressed many of the ideas he reiterated during the Fox interview.

“I abhor discrimination,” the Republican governor wrote in the op-ed, adding that the law has been “grossly misconstrued as a ‘license to discriminate.’”

“If I saw a restaurant owner refuse to serve a gay couple, I wouldn’t eat there anymore,” Pence wrote. “As governor of Indiana, if I were presented a bill that legalized discrimination against any person or group, I would veto it. Indiana’s new law contains no reference to sexual orientation. It simply mirrors federal law that President Bill Clinton signed in 1993.”

Pence also cited Hobby Lobby’s Supreme Court victory last year in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, in which the court ruled that privately held companies could be exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate for employees based on the federal RFRA.

“With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the need for a RFRA at the state level became more important, as the federal law does not apply to states,” he wrote. “To ensure that religious liberty is fully protected under Indiana law, this year the General Assembly enshrined these principles in Indiana law. I fully supported that action.”