Trump Signs Executive Order Creating NIH Women's Health Division and White House Task Force

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday, October 19, creating a Women's Health Division at the National Institutes of Health and a White House Women's Health Task Force. First Lady Melania Trump, who led the initiative, joined the president for a signing ceremony at the Rose Garden and outlined a five-point plan to advance women's health outcomes.

The task force will be co-led by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Priority health areas named in the order include maternal health, mental health, endometriosis, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, heart disease, and stroke. The order directs the HHS Secretary and NIH Director to pursue policy and regulatory reforms to ensure prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care across all stages of women's lives.

Melania Trump's five-point framework calls for directing research funding toward conditions that disproportionately affect women, using artificial intelligence to accelerate medical discoveries, fast-tracking new therapeutics, making those breakthroughs affordable, and reducing the stigma around women's health conversations. The announcement came roughly two weeks before the midterm elections, and observers noted the initiative closely resembles a women's health research effort launched during the Biden administration.