Trump Signs Order Establishing Women’s Health Division at NIH

Source reports published 19 Oct 2026, 10:00 am – 20 Oct 2026, 5:16 am AEST

President Trump, alongside First Lady Melania Trump, signed an executive order creating a new division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a White House task force dedicated to women’s health research. The initiative aims to accelerate discoveries and modernize healthcare for women.

What happened

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a dedicated women’s health division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a White House task force focused on the subject.
• During a signing ceremony in Washington on Monday, First Lady Melania Trump praised the initiative as setting "a new standard for women’s health in America."
• The newly minted project, spearheaded by the first lady, requires the new health division to be established within 90 days.
• It aims to accelerate scientific discoveries, expand clinical access for women’s health and modernize care throughout every stage of a woman’s life.
• The new division at the NIH will not replace the agency’s Office of Research on Women’s Health but will have a broader mandate beyond research, according to the White House.
• Melania Trump gestured to "super intelligence, advanced biotechnology and groundbreaking therapies" as tools that offer a "unique chance to reinvent women’s healthcare."
• The first lady’s office has identified "five pillars" for innovation in the field.
• One involves funding targeted research to develop cures for diseases that affect women, such as endometriosis.
• Another calls for a quicker timeline for "promising therapeutics" to reach female patients.
• White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who recently completed treatment for breast cancer, and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. will lead the White House task force.
• Donald Trump said the task force will coordinate with various federal agencies and programs.
• The executive order calls for targeting maternal health, mental health and endometriosis.
• The initiative comes after a series of meetings the first lady had with federal health officials.

Original reporting

• Al Jazeera: Trump signs order launching women’s health division at NIH, White House
  2026-10-19T00:00:00+00:00
• PBS NewsHour: WATCH: Trump and first lady unveil new task force on women's health research
  2026-10-19T19:16:22+00:00
• CBS News: Trump signs executive order creating women's health division within NIH
  2026-10-19T15:59:00+00:00
• South China Morning Post: Trump to create new National Institutes of Health division, task force for women’s health
  2026-10-19T16:19:26+00:00