Trump Signs Women's Health Order Championed by First Lady, Creating New NIH Division and White House Task Force
First Lady Melania Trump led Monday's White House signing. The order directs HHS to set up a Women's Health Division at the National Institutes of Health within 90 days and creates a task force co-chaired by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The Overview
The facts, straight
BREAKING: President Trump signed a women's health executive order at the White House on Monday morning. This story may be updated. Times ET.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order titled "Advancing Women's Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life," an effort the White House says was led by First Lady Melania Trump. The signing took place at the White House on Monday morning; the White House livestream opens with the President and the First Lady being introduced together.
"Previous generations fought for women's rights. Our generation will fight to discover the cures that will ensure a woman can live her life in health and to the fullest," the First Lady said in her remarks. "This is a transformative moment for women in America. Beginning today, we will change the reality of women's health."
Post: The White House (@WhiteHouse) on X, Oct. 19, 2026.
At the signing, the President said, according to the White House video: "The executive order I'll sign in just a moment will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a new Women's Health Division within the National Institute of Health. That's a big deal." (The agency's formal name is the National Institutes of Health.)
Video: The White House's official YouTube channel, Oct. 19, 2026.
What the order does. According to the order text:
- A new NIH Women's Health Division. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the NIH director, must establish a Women's Health Division "within an appropriate institute or center within 90 days." It will work in coordination with the existing NIH Office of Research on Women's Health.
- Its mandate. The division is to increase scientific review of understudied women's health conditions, coordinate research including replication studies, support methods that "increase inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials," hold grant recipients accountable for following the NIH policy "requiring research to account for sex as a biological variable," and speed the translation of discoveries into clinical practice.
- A White House Women's Health Task Force. It is co-chaired by the HHS secretary and the White House chief of staff — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Susie Wiles, according to HHS, which calls it the first such task force. Members include the secretaries of War, Agriculture, Labor, Education and Veterans Affairs; the EPA administrator; the FDA commissioner; and the directors of the CDC, NIH and ARPA-H, along with the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. HHS will fund the task force's administrative costs.
- Conditions named. The order says more research is needed on conditions including cardiovascular and heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, osteoporosis, mental health, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, "polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome," infertility, maternal health, menopause, neurological disorders and aging. The White House fact sheet abbreviates that condition as PMOS.
- Earlier orders replaced. The order revokes President Biden's Executive Order 14120 of March 18, 2024, "Advancing Women's Health Research and Innovation," and his Nov. 13, 2023, memorandum creating the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research. The fact sheet says this is meant "to broaden beyond research and prioritize translating research into improved clinical care that benefits women and girls."
- Funding. The order is to be implemented "subject to the availability of appropriations."
The First Lady's role. In her remarks, Melania Trump laid out what she called the "First Lady's Five Pillars of Women's Health Innovation": directing research funding toward cures for diseases that affect women in a unique way; using "super intelligence" to better understand female biology and speed discoveries; moving promising therapies from laboratories to patients "while still keeping strict safety standards"; making breakthroughs "accessible and affordable to women, regardless of their financial circumstances"; and replacing "generations of silence with open conversation, education, and compassion." She said the task force's first working session would convene Monday afternoon.
USA TODAY, which first reported the order, said the First Lady pressed the administration to give women's health greater priority in medical research, holding working sessions in the East Wing with physicians and other experts and meeting with HHS officials to set up the task force.
What the Left Says
The progressive and Democratic case
The National Women's Law Center welcomed the focus but questioned the follow-through. "Women's health has long been ignored as a federal priority, and while we agree that steps must be taken to close disparities in women's health care, it's hard not to point out the blatant hypocrisy of this unfunded order coming from an administration that is actively decimating health care access for women," Dorianne Mason, the center's senior director of health equity and contraceptive access, said in a statement Monday. She pointed to Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the defunding of Planned Parenthood and what she called "slashing funding for women's health research," and said: "This is an attempt to change the headlines, not women's lives."
On June 30, 40 members of the House Democratic Women's Caucus, led by Reps. Deborah Ross of North Carolina and Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California, wrote to the President, Secretary Kennedy and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya urging the administration to "restore and prioritize funding for women's health research." The caucus said the number of women's health research projects fell 31% in 2025, which it attributed to restrictions on grant language using terms such as "women" and "female."
Federal women's health research has a long history at NIH. The Office of Research on Women's Health was established in 1990 and affirmed by Congress in 1993; NIH's policy requiring researchers to consider sex as a biological variable took effect in 2016. The Biden White House launched its Initiative on Women's Health Research by presidential memorandum in November 2023, housed in the Office of the First Lady. Monday's order revokes that memorandum and the 2024 executive order that followed it.
Where Reality Likely Sits
Radio Purple's analysis
Supporters and critics agree on the starting point: many conditions that mostly or only affect women remain understudied. The new order, the Biden-era initiative it replaces, the Democratic Women's Caucus letter and the National Women's Law Center statement all say so in their own words. They also share specific goals already written into NIH policy and now into this order, from including more women and girls in clinical trials to accounting for sex as a biological variable.
Where they differ is on resources and follow-through. The order sets a 90-day deadline for the new division and puts the HHS secretary and the White House chief of staff in charge of the task force, which gives the effort high-level attention. The order is tied to available appropriations, and the White House materials released Monday do not include a dollar figure. How the division is staffed and funded, and what the task force produces, will show how far the order goes toward turning research into care.
What the Right Says
The conservative and Republican case
Administration officials describe the order as a move from studying women's health to delivering results. "President Trump is transforming how our nation approaches women's health by making it a priority across every stage of life," HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in the HHS release. "First Lady Melania Trump's leadership was instrumental in making this executive order a reality, with strong support from my co-chair, Susie Wiles." He said the new division "will confront those questions with gold-standard science, accelerate research into prevention and treatment, and turn medical discoveries into better care for women and girls across America."
"Women deserve strong research that helps them and their doctors answer key health questions they face at every stage of life," said NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. "This new division will help close lingering evidence gaps, expand and maximize the impact of our research investments, and bring discoveries closer to patients."
"Today, we're ensuring women's needs, experiences, and voices guide the care they receive at every stage of life," said Dr. Erica Schwartz, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This executive order will help us put proven interventions into practice, diagnose conditions earlier, expand treatment options, and prevent disease."
The order itself acknowledges that "previous administrations have invested in women's health research" but says there is a need to "enhance, streamline, and elevate Federal efforts regarding both research and the critical step of translation into health solutions." The fact sheet points to related steps, including the FDA's move in November 2025 to begin removing broad "black box" warnings from hormone replacement therapy products for menopause.
"Our health should never limit the fullness of our lives," the First Lady said.
Sources & Citations
- The White House, “Advancing Women's Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life (Executive Order)”, October 19, 2026.
- The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Advance Women's Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life”, October 19, 2026.
- The White House, “First Lady Melania Trump Champions New U.S. Women's Health Initiative”, October 19, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “President Trump Signs Historic Executive Order to Advance Women's Health, Championed by First Lady Melania Trump”, October 19, 2026.
- The White House (YouTube), “President Trump and the First Lady Sign an Executive Order (video)”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@WhiteHouse), “White House post on X”, October 19, 2026.
- USA TODAY, “Melania Trump pushed Trump on women's health overhaul | Exclusive”, October 19, 2026.
- NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, “About ORWH”, January 1, 2026.
- Federal Register, “White House Initiative on Women's Health Research (Presidential Memorandum of Nov. 13, 2023)”, November 17, 2023.
- National Women's Law Center, “NWLC: White House Establishes Women's Health Division Amid Major Attacks on Women's Health”, October 19, 2026.
- Democratic Women's Caucus, “DWC Members Demand Trump Admin Restore & Expand Funding for Women's Health Research”, June 30, 2026.
Positions above are attributed to the public statements and published reporting cited here. Quotations are taken from these sources; Radio Purple does not publish unattributed or invented quotes. See an error? Request a correction.