Trump signs executive order creating NIH Women's Health Division and White House task force

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the Rose Garden on Monday, Oct. 19, creating a Women's Health Division inside the National Institutes of Health and a White House Women's Health Task Force.

First lady Melania Trump stood beside him and signed the document too. CBS News noted her signature carries no legal weight.

The order is titled "Advancing Women's Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life." HHS says it directs the department, through NIH, to stand up the new division within 90 days. That puts the deadline around Jan. 17, 2027.

What the order does

The task force will be co-chaired by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HHS describes it as the first White House task force of its kind. Its job is to coordinate federal efforts from infancy and adolescence through the reproductive years, midlife, menopause and healthy aging.

The NIH division will work with the existing NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, which has operated since 1990. It does not replace that office. According to Reuters, the new division gets a broader mandate that extends beyond research.

HHS says the division will focus on research into:

• cardiovascular disease and cancer
• autoimmune and inflammatory conditions
• chronic pain
• endometriosis and fibroids
• infertility and maternal health
• menopause
• Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis

HHS also says the order calls for more accountability in federally funded research and faster translation of scientific findings into prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Melania Trump laid out five objectives: directing research funding toward conditions that disproportionately affect women, using artificial intelligence to speed discoveries, accelerating women's access to promising medications, making breakthroughs accessible and affordable, and opening up conversations about topics that were previously avoided.

"This is a transformative moment for women in America," she said. "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 first lady's role

Trump credited his wife with the idea. "Think of it, a women's health division," he said. "Who the hell wouldn't have a women's health division? Melania said, 'They don't have it.'"

NIH does have an Office of Research on Women's Health, and has for decades. The new division is a separate, larger body layered on top of it.

USA Today, citing a White House document it obtained, reported that the first lady pressed the administration to prioritize women's health research. The paper also reported that she convened working sessions with physicians and outside experts at the East Wing and met with HHS officials to set up the task force.

The timing follows Wiles's own health scare. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March, kept working through treatment, and announced in September that she is cancer-free. Trump called her "fantastic" at the ceremony and said she "cares deeply about improving the health of American women."

Money and details

Trump promised Americans would soon hear about "incredible things that we're doing" for women's care. He gave no specifics.

No funding figure for the new division has been announced. How much will go toward research, new therapeutics, or lowering costs has not been laid out. White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said the task force "will work to close critical research gaps and strengthen care for women across all stages of life."

The backdrop at HHS and NIH

The order lands against a mixed record. NewsNation reports the administration has recently moved to ease access to menopause treatment. That included removing the black box warning on hormone replacement therapy, which Kennedy announced in November 2025, plus convening experts on testosterone therapy for women and moving to expand estrogen patch supply.

Reuters adds that the warning removal tightened supplies and led to shortages of some hormone products. HHS has not been quoted in that account.

USA Today notes that Kennedy takes up this portfolio after an 18-month tenure marked by changes to vaccine and disease-prevention policy and major workforce cuts. Reuters reports that during Trump's second term the administration also sought to cut NIH grants on diversity-related topics and launched a safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone.

Major medical groups have criticized that review as politically motivated, according to Reuters. Anti-abortion groups say it is moving too slowly. U.S. officials told a court earlier this month that the review will be finished by March.

A workforce that has been cut and a research agency whose grants have been in flux are the ones now asked to build a new division from scratch.

What comes next

The first hard test is the 90-day clock. By about Jan. 17, 2027, HHS is supposed to have the Women's Health Division up and running. The agency has not said who will lead it, how many staff it will have, or what it will cost.