Trump signs executive order boosting women's health research

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the federal government to expand research into women’s health across all stages of life, a move championed by first lady Melania Trump. The order creates a Women’s Health Division at the National Institutes of Health and a White House Women’s Health Task Force, which was set to hold its first meeting the same day. (The Manila Times/AP)

“Beginning today we will change the reality of women’s health,” the first lady said at the White House, adding that previous generations “fought for women’s rights” while “our generation will fight to discover the cures”. Trump said the order would “promote new research and really go after the understudied diseases affecting women”, called it a “historic action”, and asked: “Who the hell wouldn’t have a women’s health division?”

The task force will be led by chief of staff Susie Wiles, who recently completed breast-cancer treatment, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The order targets maternal and mental health, endometriosis, infertility, fibroids and menopause, plus Alzheimer’s, heart disease, osteoporosis and stroke — but sets no specific funding goals.

The order rescinds the 2023 Biden-era women’s-health initiative led by Jill Biden, which the Bidens said had attracted nearly $1 billion in federal funding. A White House fact sheet says the new NIH division will coordinate research and does not replace the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, established in 1990.