A new White House task force and NIH division promise to close long-standing gaps in women’s medicine, even as the administration’s broader health record raises questions.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order creating a White House task force and a new division at the National Institutes of Health dedicated to women’s health, an initiative he credited to first lady Melania Trump, who joined him for the signing.
The order directs federal agencies to take a comprehensive approach to women’s health at every stage of life, according to a White House fact sheet. It emphasizes faster research into prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and calls for moving those findings more quickly into doctors’ offices and federal policy.
Melania Trump’s Pet Project Takes Center Stage
The task force will be co-led by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president said. Wiles recently completed treatment for breast cancer and has since announced she is cancer-free, which gives her new assignment a personal dimension. The group was set to hold its first meeting Monday, which the president noted fell during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
In remarks at the event, Trump called the new NIH division a long-overdue milestone. He said he could not believe the agency had gone without one and that his wife was the one who pointed out the gap.
The first lady said the effort should make medical advances accessible and affordable for women regardless of income. She also said it should replace decades of silence around women’s health with open dialogue, education and compassion.
USA Today first reported the order.
A New Division With a Familiar Neighbor
The NIH is not starting from scratch. The agency has housed an Office of Research on Women’s Health since 1990. Under the order, the new division will work alongside that office rather than replace it, and it must be set up within a suitable NIH institute or center within 90 days.
White House officials said the goal is to push the government’s attention past the lab bench by prioritizing the translation of scientific discoveries into clinical care for women and girls. The division’s mandate has three parts. It is meant to speed diagnosis and improve treatment for understudied conditions, to increase the participation of women and girls in clinical trials, and to hold grant recipients accountable for treating sex as a biological variable in their research.
The Conditions at the Heart of the Effort
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the division will examine illnesses that either uniquely affect women or affect them disproportionately. The list includes cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome, infertility, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.
The list covers nearly every stage of a woman’s life, from the reproductive years through older age.
Out With the Biden Approach
The order also rescinds former President Joe Biden’s March 2024 executive order on advancing women’s health research, an effort championed by then-first lady Jill Biden. It also revokes a November 2023 memorandum that launched a White House initiative on the same issue. The move replaces the previous administration’s framework with one built around the current White House’s priorities.
A Record That Complicates the Message
The announcement comes against a backdrop that critics say sits uneasily with its goals. Trump and his administration have pushed for health care cuts, including at the NIH, and moved last year to shrink the federal health workforce. During his second term, the administration has sought to cut NIH grants for diversity-related research. It is also reportedly moving to give political appointees control over health-research funding.
The administration has also opened a safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone that could lead to new restrictions. Major medical groups have called the review politically motivated, while anti-abortion groups argue it is moving too slowly. Earlier this month, federal officials told a court the review would be finished by March.
Health officials also removed a longstanding safety warning from many hormone replacement therapy products. That move tightened supplies and led to shortages. Officials have also encouraged more manufacturers to study testosterone therapies for women, which could lead to future approvals of female-specific products.
HHS has also targeted family planning money. Earlier this year it announced that, for the first time, applicants for Title X funding must align their programs with Trump’s political priorities, a requirement that has prompted legal action.
Whether the new division delivers on its promise may depend less on Monday’s signing than on the funding and follow-through that come after it.
Source: Reuters
