Trump Order Gives HHS 90 Days to Set Up a Women’s Health Division at NIH

On October 19, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, Advancing Women’s Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Women’s Health Division at the National Institutes of Health within 90 days. It also creates a White House Women’s Health Task Force to coordinate federal policy across the stages of life.

The order revokes Executive Order 14120 of March 18, 2024, and a November 13, 2023 presidential memorandum that created the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. The White House fact sheet says the First Lady led the effort and that the order is meant to broaden beyond research and prioritize translating research into improved clinical care.

A 90-Day Deadline for a New NIH Division

Section 2(a) directs HHS, acting through the NIH Director, to establish the division within an appropriate institute or center within 90 days. The division is to work in coordination with the existing NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. Foley Hoag describes it as working alongside that office.

Its listed duties include increasing scientific review of understudied women’s health conditions, advancing research including replication studies, and promoting technologies that speed diagnosis and improve access to prevention, treatment and coordinated care. It is also to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and to translate discoveries into clinical practice and public health across federal, state and local jurisdictions.

Foley Hoag says where NIH places the division, and how it is staffed and resourced, will offer early signals of the administration’s funding priorities. The firm also finds no other deadlines, reporting requirements or measurable targets in the order.

The Deadline in the Order
Section 2(a) gives HHS, acting through the NIH Director, 90 days to establish a Women’s Health Division within an appropriate NIH institute or center.

Clinical Trial Inclusion and Grant Accountability

Section 2(b) directs the division to increase the inclusion of women and girls in clinical trials. Because the order sets no measurable targets, it does not specify how many women or girls should be enrolled.

The division is also to develop accountability for grant recipients on NIH’s sex-as-a-biological-variable policy. Foley Hoag says the division is to require grant recipients to adhere to that policy.

Section 1 says women’s health conditions have been under-researched and lists a broad set of them, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune conditions, osteoporosis, mental health, endometriosis, fibroids, infertility, maternal health and menopause. The list also includes chronic pain, neurological disorders and aging.

Who Sits on the White House Task Force

Section 3 makes the HHS Secretary and the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff co-chairs. Foley Hoag names Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Susie Wiles to those posts.

The order lists members as the Secretaries of War, Agriculture, Labor, Education and Veterans Affairs; the EPA Administrator; the FDA Commissioner; the CDC Director; the NIH Director; the ARPA-H Director; and the CMS Administrator. The co-chairs may invite others. Foley Hoag’s list names a Defense Secretary and does not include the EPA or ARPA-H heads, so the order text and the firm’s summary differ on membership.

Section 3(c) allows the co-chairs to hold hearings, meetings and roundtables, and to take expert input from academia, the private sector, philanthropy and others. The order directs HHS to provide funding for the task force’s administrative costs.

Lifespan Focus Areas and Their Limits

Section 4 asks the task force to take a lifespan approach, from infancy through aging, and to support necessary policy and regulatory reforms. Its focus areas include research and new therapies, updated clinical education, patient-centred care across primary, specialty and behavioural health, and a stronger supply of providers.

The order also asks the task force to consult states, tribes, localities, community and faith-based groups, the private sector and philanthropy on turning research into practice. The task force may advise agency heads on pilot programs that remove obsolete silos between agencies, in each case as deemed appropriate by the agency head and consistent with applicable law. Foley Hoag notes that pilots proceed only on that basis.

The order’s only deadline is 90 days, and its spending depends on appropriations.

What the Order Says About Women’s Work, Coverage and Workplace Health

The operative sections do not mention employers, insurers, health plans, pay or leave. The workforce references are narrow. Section 2(c) asks the division to work with federal partners on career development in women’s health research, and Section 4 covers the supply of providers.

The order’s text does not describe changes to coverage rules or employer obligations. Section 6 says the order does not impair or otherwise affect the authority granted by law to executive departments and agencies, or the functions of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. It says implementation is subject to applicable law and appropriations, and that the order creates no enforceable rights.

The fact sheet lists related White House actions outside the order. It says TrumpRx.gov fertility drug savings average more than $2,000 per cycle, that Moms.gov launched in May 2026, and that the FDA began removing boxed warnings from menopause hormone therapy products in November 2025. These items are not in the order’s operative sections.

Funding Depends on Appropriations

Neither the order nor the fact sheet attaches a dollar figure to the task force, the division or its research. Foley Hoag says the order operates “subject to the availability of appropriations,” and that the only spending it directs is HHS support for the task force’s administrative costs.

Foley Hoag compares the order with earlier figures. It says the Biden-era initiative requested $12 billion, and that women’s health groups have called for $20 billion over 10 years. The firm also cites NIH grant terminations of 2,291 grants and the rescission of $2.45 billion between February and August 2025, and says those actions may conflict with the order’s goals.

The order’s only deadline is 90 days, and its spending depends on appropriations. Foley Hoag says fiscal 2027 appropriations will largely determine the order’s reach. The firm also says it is uncertain whether a same-day NIH announcement on women’s health implementation research will lead to awards, given the recent grant terminations, because that announcement commits no dedicated funding.