Updated at 12:36 p.m.: to include Democratic spokesman’s questioning of Cornyn’s concern for pregnant women’s health.

AUSTIN — Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says he opposes legalizing marijuana because he worries about “public health consequences,” such as potential harm to young people’s still-forming brains and ill effects on pregnant women and their fetuses.

Two days after virtually all of his Democratic opponents agreed weed should be legal, Cornyn said Thursday that he opposes “normalizing a drug like marijuana” until many health concerns he has are put to rest.

Speaking of pot’s main psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, Cornyn said, “I’m concerned about young people who are exposed to concentrations of THC, which potentially will damage their developing brains as well as pregnant women and the impact on their unborn child.”

The three-term Republican incumbent poked at former President Barack Obama’s decision to ease enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states permitting cannabis use.

“I know because Barack Obama decided not to enforce federal laws that the states have kind of taken their own pathway,” he said. “But Texas I don’t think is going to follow Colorado anytime soon.”

Most of the 12 Democrats seeking to unseat him, though, have called the nation’s war on drugs a failure and said pot should be legalized. Some have spoken of erasing past convictions from people’s records.

Cornyn, though, urged caution.

“We have a lot of questions we need to answer before we talk about normalizing a drug like marijuana,” he said.

Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party, said Cornyn’s professed concern for pregnant women’s health rings hollow.

As Senate majority whip in 2017, Cornyn led GOP efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Rahman noted in a written statement.

"If Cornyn truly cared about health of pregnant women, he would stop trying to repeal Obamacare and stop voting against protections for Texans with preexisting conditions — like women who are pregnant,” Rahman said.

So could alcohol, shellfish, or too much coffee, but I’m not surprised @JohnCornyn doesn’t trust women to make their own decisions about their bodies.



Know what DEFINITELY harms pregnant women, John? Gutting protections for preexisting conditions — like pregnancy. https://t.co/IELvFyjEOL — MJ Hegar (@mjhegar) February 20, 2020

Cornyn spoke with reporters shortly before he cast an early vote in the March 3 Republican primary. Earlier, he and his wife, Sandy, joined about 100 GOP officeholders and activists in a rally at a Tex-Mex restaurant in South Austin.

In his remarks to supporters and at the press gaggle, Texas’ senior senator issued a ringing defense of President Donald Trump, crediting him with delivering a strong economy, low unemployment, improved retirement savings and conservative judges.

Asked if he is uncomfortable about Trump’s recent firing of aides who testified about Ukraine in the impeachment investigation, Cornyn blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House intelligence committee chief Adam Schiff for the aides’ fate.

Speaking of former National Security Council adviser Alexander Vindman and former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Cornyn noted they are presidential choices who can be fired summarily.

“I can understand why he would have lost confidence in them,” Cornyn said of Trump. “He’s entitled to have people he trusts serve his administration.”

Pelosi and Schiff persisted in an impeachment push that was doomed to fail, he said.

“We knew what the outcome was going to be,” Cornyn said. “But Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi really didn’t care too much about those people. They were willing to throw them under the bus in order to get to President Trump. … He’s entitled to have people he has confidence in serve his administration.”

On Trump’s move to redirect $3.8 billion more from the Pentagon to the building of a U.S.-Mexico border wall, Cornyn declined to join Clarendon Rep. Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, in criticizing the shift.

Last week, Thornberry called it “contrary to Congress’ constitutional authority.” Texas Democrats fumed that the shift of military funds to construction of the wall would take away money slated for fighter jets like the F-35, Navy ships and National Guard equipment.

Lockheed Martin is building the F-35 fighter jet in Fort Worth. Cornyn took pains to support the Fort Worth procurement, saying it’s threatened more by Democrats’ cuts to the Pentagon’s budget than to Trump’s border wall.

“None of the Democrats have worked with the president or the Republicans in order to do what we need to do along the border to protect our sovereignty and to make sure we’re not overrun by asylum seekers from Central America,” Cornyn said.

“I believe border security is part of national security. So I support the efforts to accomplish that secure border,” he said of Trump’s siphoning of more defense dollars for the wall.

Cornyn blamed Democrats.

“The president’s left with a bad hand and has to play the best hand he can,” he said.

Stressing his support for the F-35 twice, Cornyn said, “I wish that there was more cooperation in Washington with Democrats who would adequately fund the other parts of our national security — like, make sure that our requirements for the F-35 are met.”

Turning to November, Cornyn said the deciding issue in his race will be the emergence of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as the Democrats’ presidential frontrunner.

“Bernie Sanders puts it right in front of us, the choice between our free enterprise system and the freedoms we enjoy versus government-run socialism,” Cornyn said.

“To me, that’s going to be the overwhelming contrast between the president and the Democratic nominee. And … the Democratic nominee for the Senate, they’re going to have to either embrace Bernie Sanders or they’re going to have to run away from them. Either way, it’s going to be very interesting.”