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Trump establishes NIH Women’s Health Division and task force
President Trump signed an executive order establishing a Women’s Health Division at NIH and a White House task force to boost research and improve care for women.
20 Oct 2026 0 reads Compiled with AI
#Trump #Melania Trump #NIH #Women’s Health Division #White House #Task Force
On Oct. 19, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump signed an executive order at a ceremony that created a new Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health and a White House Women’s Health Task Force. The ceremony was held at the White House and was covered by AFP and Getty Images. Melania Trump said the initiative would “change the reality of women’s health” and that her generation would work to find cures so women can live fully healthy lives.
Division’s Mission
The new division will be set up within 90 days and aims to streamline research into understudied diseases that affect women, improve diagnostics, and strengthen treatment options. It will work with the existing Office of Research on Women’s Health to expand and coordinate studies across all life stages, increase the inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials, and hold researchers accountable for considering sex as a biological variable in NIH‑funded projects.
The task force, which met on the same day, is led by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and includes cabinet members such as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, and Director Erica Schwartz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its role is to translate research into evidence‑based policies, improve prevention and access to care for women, and identify regulatory reforms that could improve health outcomes.
Task Force Leadership
Women’s health research has suffered from chronic underinvestment and political scrutiny that has slowed funding and stalled diversity initiatives. Critics say that the lack of a dedicated division has left women at higher risk of adverse drug reactions, misdiagnosed heart attacks, and inadequate treatment for chronic pain. The new division and task force aim to correct these gaps by focusing on biology‑based research and leveraging advanced technology such as super‑intelligence to develop new diagnostics and therapies.