Today a federal medical panel, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, declared that women do not need mammograms before the age of 50 and those over 50 need mammograms only every other year.

To give you an idea of how scary this is: the Canadians are touting this pronouncement as validation of their health-care system guidelines.

As a woman who knows both breast-cancer survivors and breast-cancer victims, I am appalled.

Let’s face it: women are the first to be thrown under the bus whenever our right to “be secure in our persons” is at issue (that’s a Constitutional right, if you missed it). Most medical research is conducted on men, not on a mix of sexes. That’s because there are so many men in prison who are willing to become guinea pigs in medical studies. It’s also because most medical researchers are men who don’t care about women’s health.

The premise of the task force’s conclusion is that “false positive” results on a mammogram are counter-productive.

Duh? Would you rather be told by your radiologist to return to the hospital for a second screening because of anomalous results—only to be told after the test that everything’s OK—or be told by your radiologist that you have a rapidly spreading form of breast cancer that could have been caught if you had only come in for a mammogram a year ago?

Maybe this is what they mean by “health-care rationing.” Maybe women are going to be the first ones to receive the ration coupons. (When mine comes in the mail, I’m going to do what most people do with jury summons—I’m going to toss it.)

Don’t hold your breath for a similar pronouncement about prostate cancer.

This is a women’s rights issue. Don’t kid yourself. If this task force recommendation is adopted by insurance companies, we’re going to have to pay for most of our mammograms, even though the tests help to keep health-care costs down.