Trump signs order launching women’s health division at NIH and White House | Donald Trump News
First Lady Melania Trump defended the executive action as a “transformative moment” for American women’s health.
Published on October 19, 2026
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will establish a dedicated women’s health division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as a White House task force focused on the topic.
At a signing ceremony in Washington on Monday, first lady Melania Trump hailed the initiative as setting “a new standard for women’s health in America.”
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“This is a transformative moment for American women. Starting today, we will change the reality of women’s health,” she said.
“Previous generations fought for women’s rights. Our generation will fight to discover the cures that will allow a woman to live her life healthy and fully.”
The new plan, led by the first lady, requires that the new health division be created within 90 days.
It aims to accelerate scientific discoveries, expand clinical access for women’s health, and modernize care at every stage of a woman’s life.
The new NIH division will not replace the agency’s Office of Women’s Health Research, but will have a broader mandate beyond research, according to the White House.
Melania Trump spoke of “super intelligence, advanced biotechnology and revolutionary therapies” as tools offering a “unique chance to reinvent women’s health care.”
The first lady’s office has identified “five pillars” for innovation in this area. One is to fund targeted research to develop cures for diseases that affect women, such as endometriosis.
Another calls for a faster timeline for “promising therapies” to reach patients.
“In 2026, medical advances can do more than just extend life,” Melania Trump said. “It should give women the freedom to live their lives to the fullest, to pursue their dreams, to experience love, to discover, to create, to travel and to lead.”
The White House task force will be co-chaired by new White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, as well as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Although Monday’s executive order requires HHS to fund the task force’s administrative costs, the executive order itself does not include any specific funding goals or dollar amounts.
Experts have noted that Melania Trump kept a relatively low profile during Trump’s second term.
Her public appearances have been fewer than during Trump’s first term, although she has been in the public eye promoting improved foster care and the role of technology, such as artificial intelligence, in education.
During Trump’s first term, the first lady launched the “Be Best” campaign focused on children’s well-being, social media safety and combating opioid abuse.
But critics question the effectiveness of Monday’s executive order, given Trump’s reductions in federal staffing since his second inauguration.
Thousands of employees have been laid off at the NIH alone, with Kaiser Health News reporting that its workforce is at its lowest level in decades.
The NIH was also given a deadline to cut spending by 35 percent across all of its divisions, representing a massive budget cut of $2.6 billion.
In April 2025, HHS drew widespread condemnation and a multistate lawsuit after abruptly deciding to end regional contracts for the Women’s Health Initiative, the nation’s largest longitudinal study of older women’s health at the time.
Critics warned the move would endanger vital research into cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporotic fractures in older women.
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