Trump order creates a women’s health division at NIH and a White House task force, and revokes Biden-era women’s health research order

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, titled “Advancing Women’s Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life.” It directs the creation of a Women’s Health Division at the National Institutes of Health and sets up a White House Women’s Health Task Force.¹ First lady Melania Trump spoke about the order at the White House and thanked the president for signing it. She said the task force’s first working session would meet that afternoon.²

What the order directs

The order tells the secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the NIH director, to set up the Women’s Health Division within an appropriate NIH institute or center within 90 days. The division is to work with NIH’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health. Its listed duties include reviewing understudied conditions in women, promoting technology that speeds diagnosis, supporting the inclusion of women in clinical trials and holding grantees accountable for considering sex as a biological variable. The order does not say who will lead the division.¹

The health secretary and the White House chief of staff are to co-chair the task force. Its other members are the secretaries of War, Agriculture, Labor, Education and Veterans Affairs. The heads of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIH, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also serve.¹ The task force is to push research forward, including faster development of new therapies, move findings into clinical practice and consult states, tribes, local governments and the private sector.¹

On money, the order says HHS will pay the task force’s administrative costs. It says the order is to be carried out subject to available appropriations. It names no dollar amount and does not require any reports.¹

Earlier order revoked

The order revokes Executive Order 14120, which President Joe Biden signed March 18, 2024. It also revokes a Nov. 13, 2023, presidential memorandum that set up the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.¹ Biden’s order had told agencies in that initiative to report to the president on their research and data standards within 180 days and every year after that. It also told the White House budget office and the Gender Policy Council to identify gaps in women’s health research funding.³ The White House fact sheet says the new order rescinds the prior administration’s initiatives so the focus moves from research alone to putting findings into clinical care.⁴

Reaction

“Beginning today we will change the reality of women’s health,” Melania Trump said, the AP reported. The president said the order would “really go after the understudied diseases affecting women.”⁵

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said she agreed with the first lady but that “her husband’s policies tell a different story.” In her statement, DeLauro said the president’s fiscal 2027 budget “proposed only $43 billion” for NIH research, which she called “a cut of $6 billion (12%) below the fiscal year 2026 enacted level.”⁶ Dorianne Mason of the National Women’s Law Center said in a statement that “women’s health has long been ignored as a federal priority.” News From The States reported that Mason, the center’s senior director of health equity and contraceptive access, called the order unfunded and criticized its timing.⁷

What the records do not show

• The order does not name who will lead the NIH division or say how it will be staffed.
• The order sets no funding amount for the division or the task force, and the White House fact sheet does not give one either.
• The order requires no reports and sets no end date for the task force.
• No HHS or NIH news release on the order could be found as of Oct. 20.