Trump signs order to create women’s health division at NIH

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to create a women’s health division within the National Institutes of Health and a White House task force, an initiative championed by first lady Melania Trump to expand research and care for women.

“This is a transformative moment for women in America,” the first lady said at a Rose Garden signing ceremony. “Beginning today, we will change the reality of women’s health. 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 order requires the new NIH division to be established within 90 days, Al Jazeera reported. The division will not replace the agency’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health; it will have a broader mandate extending beyond research, according to the White House, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Melania Trump outlined five objectives: directing research toward cures for conditions that disproportionately affect women, using artificial intelligence to speed discoveries, bringing new treatments to patients faster, making medical breakthroughs affordable and making discussions of women’s health less taboo. Her office cited endometriosis as an example of a condition targeted by the research effort, Al Jazeera reported.

The first lady also pointed to “super intelligence, advanced biotechnology and groundbreaking therapies” as tools that could reshape care. “In 2026, medical advances can do more than just prolong life,” she said. “It should give women the freedom to live life to its fullest, to pursue our dreams, experience love, discover, create, travel and lead.”

Trump credited his wife with proposing the NIH division. “Who the hell wouldn’t have a women’s health division? Melania said, ‘They don’t have it,’” he said. She added her signature to the order after he signed it, though CBS News noted that her signature carries no legal weight.

The president said Americans would soon hear about “incredible things that we’re doing” to get women the care they need, but offered no specifics. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to cover the task force’s administrative costs, though it sets no funding targets or dollar amounts, Al Jazeera reported.

The task force will be co-chaired by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to Al Jazeera. White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said it would “work to close critical research gaps and strengthen care for women across all stages of life.”

Wiles continued working after a breast cancer diagnosis in March and announced in September that she was cancer-free, CBS News reported. Trump called her “a tremendous fighter” at the ceremony.

Questions remain about the initiative’s resources. Al Jazeera reported that critics have questioned its effectiveness after federal workforce cuts, including layoffs at NIH. It also reported that NIH had been given a deadline to cut spending by 35%, or $2.6 billion, across its divisions. In April 2025, HHS moved to end regional contracts for the Women’s Health Initiative, prompting condemnation and a multistate lawsuit, Al Jazeera reported. Critics warned that the move threatened research on cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporotic fractures in older women.