Women Waited Decades for Answers. Trump's New Order Gives NIH 90 Days to Build a Women's Health Division
On Oct. 19, President Trump signed an order, led by First Lady Melania Trump, creating an NIH Women's Health Division within 90 days and a Cabinet-level task force to turn research into care. In our view, it is the right priority, and Congress should fund it.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 20, 2026 | 6-min read Ask almost any woman over 45 and she can tell you a story: the years of symptoms before an endometriosis diagnosis, the menopause questions her doctor could not answer, the heart warning signs that did not look like the ones in the textbook. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order, championed by First Lady Melania Trump, that tells the federal government to stop treating those stories as an afterthought [1][2]. In our view, it is the right priority, and the 90-day clock in the order is the part to watch. Key Takeaways The Oct. 19 executive order directs HHS, through the NIH Director, to establish a Women's Health Division at the National Institutes of Health "within 90 days" [1]. It creates a White House Women's Health Task Force co-chaired by the HHS Secretary and the White House Chief of Staff, with members including the Secretaries of War, Agriculture, Labor, Education and Veterans Affairs and the heads of FDA, CDC, NIH, ARPA-H, CMS and EPA [1]. The order lists conditions needing more research, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's, autoimmune