I wanted to share with you two interesting political stories from my home state of Virginia that demonstrate the power of the vote.

In 2012, the Republicans in the General Assembly successfully passed a bill requiring abortion clinics to be treated as hospitals and instructed the state’s Board of Health to implement regulations on the clinics immediately. The Board initially declined to comply but later passed the regulations under pressure from then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Many clinics started making plans to close their business because they could not afford to comply with the regulations.

Then, last November, we elected a Democratic, pro-choice Governor named Terry McAuliffe. He quickly appointed five new members to the Board of Health and asked them to “review” the clinic rules. In response, Virginia’s new Commissioner of Health, Doctor Marissa Levine, announced just last week that the clinic regulations should be “amended.” That process could actually take a few years according to reports. So, because of one election, the clinics in Virginia can now breathe a little easier these days.

Meanwhile, in the northern part of the state, a woman named Barbara Comstock is the Republican nominee for an open Congressional seat. She is trying to portray herself as a moderate who will “work across the aisle” to save the Republic, cure Ebola, turn the economy around, blah, blah.

Her opponent, Democrat John Faust, has produced a campaign commercial pointing out how Comstock, who was once in the Virginia state legislature, supported a bill requiring women to get transvaginal ultrasounds before obtaining an abortion. The bill was eventually pulled after an embarrassing national outcry.

In response to this ad, Comstock said that “I’m not running for the Supreme Court” and argued that legislation overturning Roe v Wade would “not come up in Congress.”

Horse poop.

The fact is that in every Congress bills are introduced that would either overturn Roe v Wade, thus leaving the issue to the states, or declare the fetus a “person” which would outlaw abortion immediately. And it will be interesting to see if Ms Comstock co-sponsors any of those bills should she win this race. No doubt the anti-abortion lobbyists will be pressuring her from day one to do so.

Right now, however, the bills in the House of Representatives are not going anywhere because those bills would die in the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats. So, the House leaders see no reason to make their members vote on this contentious issue since it would not be considered by the Senate. Why make your members walk the plank on that one?

But what Ms Comstock is not saying is that there is a good chance the U.S. Senate could be taken over by the Republican Party in November – and that would change everything. If that happened, nut ball Senators like Ted Cruz would be chomping at the bit to introduce and get considered legislation that would “save the babies.” He would love to take the floor of the Senate and further enhance his right wing credentials by leading the charge on a constitutional amendment banning abortion. And remember that President Obama cannot veto a constitutional amendment.

So, Ms Comstock should stop dodging this issue. She needs to be straight with the voters. If she wins her race (a good possibility) and the Senate falls into the hands of the Republicans, she just might be voting on legislation that is tantamount to her being on the Supreme Court anyway.