Trump signs order launching women’s health division at NIH, White House

First Lady Melania Trump has championed the executive action as a ‘transformative moment’ for US women’s health.

Donald and Melania Trump at the signing of the executive order on women's health on Monday [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will establish a dedicated women’s health division within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as 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”.

list 1 of 3 Trump faces bipartisan backlash over Russia sanctions waiver

list 2 of 3 ‘Party of parents’: Trump touts government guidance to increase IVF access

list 3 of 3 US fertility rate drops to all-time low, continuing a two-decade decline

“This is a transformative moment for women in America. Beginning today, we will change the reality of women’s health,” she said.

“Previous generations fought for women’s rights. Our generation will fight to discover the cures that will ensure a woman can live her life in health and to the fullest.”

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 modernise 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.

“In 2026, medical advances can do more than just prolong life,” said Melania Trump. “It should give women the freedom to live life to its fullest, to pursue our dreams, experience love, discover, create, travel and lead.”

The White House task force will be co-chaired by the newly cancer-free White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, as well as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

While Monday’s executive order mandates that the HHS must fund the administrative costs of the task force, the order itself does not include any specific funding targets or dollar amounts.

Experts have noted that Melania Trump has kept a relatively low profile during Trump’s second term.

Her public appearances have been fewer than during Trump’s first term, though she has stepped into the public spotlight to promote improvements to foster care and the role of technology, such as artificial intelligence in education.

During Trump’s first term, the first lady launched the “Be Best” campaign focused on child well-being, safe social media and countering opioid abuse.

But critics have questioned how effective Monday’s executive order might be, given the cuts Trump has made to the federal workforce since his second inauguration.

Thousands of employees have been laid off at the NIH alone, with Kaiser Health News reporting that its workforce is at its lowest level in decades.

The NIH was also given a deadline to slash spending by 35 percent across all of its divisions, amounting to a massive $2.6bn budget reduction.

In April 2025, the HHS drew widespread condemnation and a multi-state lawsuit after abruptly moving to terminate regional contracts for the Women’s Health Initiative, the nation’s largest longitudinal study on older women’s health at the time.

Critics warned that the move would jeopardise life-saving research on cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporotic fractures for senior women.

第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普称赞这项行政命令是美国女性健康的“变革性时刻”。

周一，唐纳德·特朗普和梅拉尼娅·特朗普在签署有关女性健康的行政命令时 [凯文·拉马克/路透社]

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普签署了一项行政命令，将在国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 内设立专门的妇女健康部门，以及一个专注于此主题的白宫工作组。

周一在华盛顿举行的签字仪式上，第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普称赞该倡议为“美国女性健康树立了新标准”。

特朗普因豁免俄罗斯制裁而面临两党强烈反对（共3条，第1条）

列表 2/3 “父母党”：特朗普吹捧政府指导方针，旨在增加试管婴儿服务

美国生育率降至历史新低，延续了过去二十年的下降趋势（列表 3/3）。

“这对美国女性来说是一个具有变革意义的时刻。从今天开始，我们将改变女性健康的现状，”她说。

“前几代人为女性权利而奋斗。我们这一代人将为寻找治愈方法而奋斗，以确保女性能够健康、充实地生活。”

这项由第一夫人牵头的新项目要求在 90 天内建立新的卫生部门。

它旨在加速科学发现，扩大女性健康临床服务的覆盖范围，并实现女性生命各个阶段护理的现代化。

据白宫称，美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 的新部门不会取代该机构的妇女健康研究办公室，但其职责范围将超出研究范畴。

梅拉尼娅·特朗普将“超级智能、先进的生物技术和突破性疗法”视为“重塑女性医疗保健的独特机会”的工具。

第一夫人办公室已确定了该领域创新的“五大支柱”。其中之一是资助有针对性的研究，以开发治疗影响女性疾病（例如子宫内膜异位症）的方法。

另一项呼吁是加快“有前景的疗法”惠及女性患者的步伐。

梅拉尼娅·特朗普表示：“到2026年，医学进步不仅可以延长寿命，还应该赋予女性充分享受生活的自由，让她们能够追求梦想、体验爱情、探索发现、创造创造、旅行和领导。”

白宫特别工作组将由刚刚战胜癌症的白宫幕僚长苏西·威尔斯和卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪共同主持。

虽然周一的行政命令规定卫生与公众服务部必须承担该工作组的行政费用，但该命令本身并未包含任何具体的资金目标或金额。

专家指出，梅拉尼娅·特朗普在特朗普的第二个任期内一直保持着相对低调的姿态。

虽然她公开露面的次数比特朗普第一任期时要少，但她仍然积极参与到公众视野中，以推动改善寄养制度和人工智能等技术在教育中的作用。

在特朗普的第一任期内，第一夫人发起了“做到最好”运动，重点关注儿童福祉、安全的社交媒体和打击阿片类药物滥用。

但批评人士质疑，鉴于特朗普自第二次就职以来对联邦政府雇员进行了大幅削减，周一的行政命令究竟能有多大效果。

仅美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 就有数千名员工被解雇，凯撒健康新闻报道称，其员工人数已降至数十年来的最低水平。

美国国立卫生研究院也被要求在所有部门削减 35% 的开支，这意味着要大幅削减 26 亿美元的预算。

2025 年 4 月，美国卫生与公众服务部 (HHS) 突然终止了妇女健康倡议 (Women's Health Initiative) 的区域合同，这是当时美国规模最大的老年妇女健康纵向研究，此举招致了广泛的谴责和多州诉讼。

批评人士警告说，此举将危及针对老年女性的心血管疾病、癌症和骨质疏松性骨折的救命研究。