President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday, October 19, titled “Advancing Women’s Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life,” directing the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a new Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health. HHS has 90 days to stand the division up inside an appropriate NIH institute or center. First Lady Melania Trump championed the order and appeared alongside the president at the signing, held during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The division will work with, not replace, the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, which has existed since 1990. Its remit, per the HHS release, is research into conditions that uniquely or disproportionately affect women, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, infertility, maternal health, menopause and Alzheimer’s disease. It is also charged with strengthening accountability in federally funded research, reinforcing NIH requirements to account for sex as a biological variable, increasing the inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials, and translating discoveries into clinical care.
The order also creates the first White House Women’s Health Task Force, co-chaired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, to coordinate federal women’s health efforts across the life span. Trump said the task force would hold its first meeting on Monday. Wiles recently announced she is cancer free after treatment for breast cancer.
The order is also a reversal document. Reuters reported that it revokes a 2024 executive order signed by President Joe Biden on women’s health research and a 2023 memorandum that created the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. It does not mention contraception or reproductive rights, and the FDA’s separate safety review of abortion medication continues independently.
What the order does not carry is money. No new appropriation was announced with it, so the division’s weight will depend on how NIH allocates existing funds and staff over the 90 day setup window, and on whether the task force’s recommendations reach the budget process. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said the division “will help close lingering evidence gaps, expand and maximize the impact of our research investments, and bring discoveries closer to patients.”