Trump signs women’s health order creating White House task force and NIH division

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on women’s health at the White House on October 19, establishing a federal task force and directing the creation of a women’s health division within the National Institutes of Health, according to the White House. NBC News carried coverage of the signing from the Rose Garden. The administration says the order is intended to improve how research informs care for women and girls.

What the women’s health order establishes

The White House says First Lady Melania Trump led the initiative. Its fact sheet says the new White House Women’s Health Task Force will coordinate a federal approach to health needs from infancy and adolescence through pregnancy, menopause and aging. The task force is intended to address needs across life stages rather than focus on a single condition or period of care.

Research priorities and the shift toward clinical care

The administration identifies cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, infertility, maternal health and menopause among areas needing more research. Those examples show the range of conditions the White House wants federal work to address, although the fact sheet does not assign funding or a timetable to individual conditions in its account of the order.

The White House says the order rescinds initiatives of the previous administration and broadens the federal emphasis beyond research to its use in clinical care. That description sets out the administration’s intended change in approach; the fact sheet does not identify a measured effect of the rescission on patients or researchers.

In presenting its wider record on women’s health, the White House says 46 states have invested in maternal health, including telehealth, obstetric workforce development and postpartum care. It also says the Food and Drug Administration began removing broad warnings from hormone replacement therapy products in November 2025. Those earlier actions provide context for the administration’s priorities; the new order’s direct measures are the task force and the directive to create the NIH division.