GOP Senate Candidate Kirk: Health Care Bill Would Deny Women Mammograms!

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), who is running for President Obama's former Senate seat in 2010, is now embracing an offshoot of the "death panel" line -- warning that the health care bill could result in women being denied mammograms!

As Greg Sargent reports, Kirk's campaign sent out an e-mail, officially a "questionnaire":

This month, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended eliminating mammograms for women ages 40-49. The panel concluded that while thousands of women's lives would be saved by continuing the test, "the net benefit is small" for the population as a whole.

Currently, this is only an advisory recommendation. But under the health care bill moving through the Senate, this recommendation could become law.

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK: Should women between the ages of 40 and 49 be denied access to life-saving mammograms?

However, the fact is that the Senate health bill would not do such a thing. But that panel recommendation has become a big talking point of the right in the past couple weeks, warning of government-rationed care -- and this e-mail is a strong sign of how conservative Kirk is going in this statewide race, after years of maintaining a moderate profile in a Democratic district.