Trump's women's health order creates an NIH division but sets no dollar amount

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday, Oct. 19. It creates a new women's health division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the federal government's main medical research agency, and a White House task force on women's health ¹². First lady Melania Trump pushed for the plan and helped shape it ¹.

The order does not include a dollar figure. It tells the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to pay the task force's administrative costs, but it sets no funding targets ². It can only be carried out subject to the "availability of appropriations," meaning money Congress provides ⁹.

For older women, that gap is the main story. The same administration has asked Congress to cut NIH's budget. In 2025, it also moved to end contracts for the Women's Health Initiative, one of the largest studies of older women ever done, before backing down ⁶⁷.

What the order does

HHS has 90 days to set up the new division inside NIH ⁹. The division will work with NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health, which opened in 1990. It does not replace that office ²⁶. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will lead the task force ². Wiles was diagnosed with breast cancer in March and said in September that she is cancer-free ⁸.

The White House says the goal is to strengthen care for women and girls "throughout every stage of life," including midlife, menopause and aging ³. The list of conditions includes heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain and menopause ³. The White House also pointed to a Food and Drug Administration effort, begun in November 2025, to remove black box warnings from menopause hormone therapy products ³.

The order also cancels two Biden-era actions: President Joe Biden's March 2024 executive order on women's health research and his November 2023 memo that created a White House initiative on the subject ⁶⁹. The Biden administration linked that effort to nearly $1 billion in federal investments ¹⁰.

Beginning today, we will change the reality of women's health.

At the Rose Garden signing, President Trump said he was surprised that NIH did not already have such a division ¹⁸.

Who the hell wouldn't have a women's health division? Melania said, 'They don't have it.'

That matters because NIH has had an office for women's health research for 36 years ¹⁰. NIH already spends about $5 billion a year on women's health. It is unclear how the order will change that amount or how much the new division will get ⁶.

The money question

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya told CBS Mornings that the total is still undecided, but that "some new money will very likely be devoted to this" ⁸. Alicia Jackson leads the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a federal agency that funds high-risk medical research. She said it would make announcements this year involving roughly $100 million to $200 million for efforts that affect women ⁸.

This new division will help close lingering evidence gaps, expand and maximize the impact of our research investments,

Now look at the budget requests. For the 2026 budget year, the administration asked Congress to cut NIH by about 40 percent from 2025 levels, and Congress said no ⁶. The 2027 request seeks another cut of about 12 percent ⁶. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the request would give NIH research $43 billion, which is $6 billion below this year's level ⁴.

I could not agree more with the First Lady, but her husband's policies tell a different story.

DeLauro said she would work with the first lady on her five goals. She noted that she has helped triple funding for NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health since 2019 ⁴.

Even groups that welcomed the order are asking about money. The Society for Women's Health Research, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a third group said in a joint statement that "Robust and sustained funding is necessary to meaningfully advance research in women's health" ⁹. Their own national plan calls for $20 billion over 10 years ⁹.

The study many older women know

For women over 55, the Women's Health Initiative is the clearest test. The federally funded study has followed more than 160,000 women for about 30 years. About 13,000 of them are over age 90 ⁷. Its findings have shaped medical advice on hormone therapy, cancer, osteoporosis and memory loss ⁷.

On April 21, 2025, researchers were told that HHS would end contracts for the study's four regional centers that September ⁷. Doctors and scientists objected strongly. Four days later, HHS told ABC News it planned to restore the funding. The study's leaders later said NIH told them that the earlier decision not to renew the contracts had been reversed ⁷.

Critics also point to staffing. Thousands of NIH employees have been laid off, and KFF Health News has reported that the agency's workforce is at its lowest level in decades ².

The timing

The signing came just weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections ¹. AP-NORC polls show that support for Trump among independent women fell from about 4 in 10 in 2024 to around a quarter in early 2026 ¹.

The pattern is familiar: a signing ceremony with a broad promise while the budget request points the other way. Whether the new division ever gets real money and staff will be decided by Congress when it writes the spending bills, not by the order itself.

The Record

1. Mar 18, 2024President Biden signs Executive Order 14120 on advancing women's health research and innovation ⁹.
2. Apr 21, 2025Researchers are told HHS will end contracts for the Women's Health Initiative's four regional centers that September ⁷.
3. Apr 25, 2025After an outcry, HHS tells ABC News it plans to restore the Women's Health Initiative's funding ⁷.
4. Oct 19, 2026President Trump signs an order creating an NIH women's health division and a White House task force, with no funding amount, and cancels Biden's 2024 order ²⁹.
5. Oct 19, 2026Rep. Rosa DeLauro says the 2027 budget request would cut NIH research by $6 billion, to $43 billion ⁴.

Sources

1. AP (via FOX19), “Trump signs an order aimed at boosting women's health research, a plan backed by the first lady” (2026-10-19). fox19.com/2026/10/19/trump-signs-an-order-aimed-boosting-wom
2. Al Jazeera / AP, “Trump signs order launching women's health division at NIH, White House” (2026-10-19). aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/19/trump-signs-order-launching-wo
3. The White House, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Advance Women's Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life” (2026-10-19). whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/10/fact-sheet-president-dona
4. House Appropriations Committee Democrats, “DeLauro Responds to First Lady Melania Trump's Women's Health Initiative” (2026-10-19). democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/delau
5. STAT, “Trump orders creation of NIH initiative on women's health” (2026-10-19). statnews.com/2026/10/19/executive-order-melania-trump-nih-di
6. The Fiscal Times, “Trump Orders New NIH Initiative on Women's Health” (2026-10-19). thefiscaltimes.com/2026/10/19/Trump-Orders-New-NIH-Initiativ
7. ABC News, “Women's Health Initiative to continue after threat of funding cuts, researchers say” (2025-05-07). abcnews.com/GMA/Wellness/trump-administration-restore-fundin
8. CBS News, “Trump signs executive order creating women's health division within NIH” (2026-10-20). cbsnews.com/news/trump-executive-order-on-womens-health/
9. Contemporary OB/GYN, “Executive order directs NIH to create women's health division” (2026-10-19). contemporaryobgyn.net/view/executive-order-directs-nih-to-cr
10. Newsweek, “The Awkward Case for Thanking Trump on Women's Health” (2026-10-20). newsweek.com/trump-melania-womens-health-nih-division-fundin

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