Trump order tells NIH to create a Women's Health Division within 90 days
Executive Order 14437 also sets up a White House Women's Health Task Force led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and revokes the 2024 order on women's health research. It adds no new money.
President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14437, “Advancing Women’s Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life,” on Oct 19. First Lady Melania Trump led the effort, according to the White House. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services to have the National Institutes of Health set up a Women’s Health Division “within an appropriate institute or center within 90 days.” That puts the deadline at Jan 17, 2027.
What the division will do
The division works with the existing NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. The order gives it seven jobs. Among them are more scientific review of understudied conditions, coordinated research that includes replication studies, and more women and girls in clinical trials. It must hold grant recipients to the NIH policy that research account for sex as a biological variable. It must also move findings into clinical practice.
HHS lists the research areas: cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome (PMOS), infertility, maternal health, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.
“This new division will help close lingering evidence gaps, expand and maximize the impact of our research investments, and bring discoveries closer to patients,” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said.
The task force
The order creates a White House Women’s Health Task Force. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles lead it together. Members include the heads of FDA, CDC, NIH, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Secretaries of War, Agriculture, Labor, Education and Veterans Affairs and the EPA administrator also sit on it.
The task force can hold public hearings and take input from researchers, industry and philanthropy. Its brief covers women’s health from infancy through pregnancy, midlife, menopause and aging. HHS pays its administrative costs.
What it replaces
The order revokes Executive Order 14120 of March 18, 2024, “Advancing Women’s Health Research and Innovation.” It also revokes a Nov 13, 2023 memorandum that created the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. The White House fact sheet says the goal is to go beyond research and turn it into clinical care.
The order names no dollar amount. It is to be carried out “subject to the availability of appropriations,” the standard language that leaves funding to Congress and existing budgets.
HHS tied the order to other steps it has taken since January 2025. Those include FDA starting to remove broad boxed warnings from hormone therapy products and more than $525 million for home visiting services. HHS also proposed cervical cancer screening guidelines that add a self collection option.
Why it matters
NIH has a hard date to stand up the division, Jan 17, and how much research it funds will depend on money Congress provides.
FDA
