Key Takeaways:

• On October 19, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) creating a Women’s Health Division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a White House Women’s Health Task Force.
• The EO seeks to improve women’s health across the lifespan by expanding research on conditions that disproportionately or uniquely affect women, enrolling more women in clinical trials, and moving research findings into clinical care.
• Without dedicated funding or enforceable rights, the EO’s reach may be limited, particularly as recent NIH grant terminations and agency actions on emergency pregnancy care and Title X funding could cut against the goal of improving women’s health. FY2027 appropriations will be a key test.

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On October 19, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) focused on women’s health. The “Advancing Women’s Health to Improve Outcomes in All Phases of Life” EO seeks to improve women’s health across the lifespan by expanding research on conditions that disproportionately or uniquely affect women and moving that research into clinical care. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to create a Women’s Health Division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a White House Women’s Health Task Force, each described below. It also revokes Executive Order 14120 and its accompanying Presidential Memorandum, which established the Biden administration’s White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.

Although the EO aims to expand federal support for women’s health, it does not create enforceable rights or provide dedicated funding, limiting its initial reach. Critics of the order highlight that it follows agency actions that run counter to the EO’s stated goals, including NIH grant terminations, rescinded emergency pregnancy care guidance, and new conditions on Title X family planning funding. Its impact will depend largely on FY2027 appropriations and on whether agencies reconcile their stated goals with those existing policies. Creation of the NIH Women’s Health Division. The EO directs HHS to establish a Women’s Health Division within an existing institute or center of the NIH within 90 days. The Division is charged with, in collaboration with the already-existing NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, identifying women’s health conditions that have been understudied and directing more research toward them; coordinating that research, including studies that test whether earlier findings remain true; enrolling more women and girls in clinical trials; requiring grant recipients to adhere “to the NIH policy requiring research to account for sex as a biological variable;” and turning research results into treatments and clinical practice. Priority areas include cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, infertility, maternal health, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease, and osteoporosis. The EO does not identify any source of funding for the new Women’s Health Division.

Creation of the White House Women’s Health Task Force. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will co-chair the Task Force, which is composed of the heads of several executive agencies (including heads of the Food & Drug Administration, NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) along with the Secretaries of the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Labor, Education, and Veterans Affairs. The Task Force is charged with coordinating a lifespan approach to women’s health across these agencies, including by steering grantmaking toward prevention, treatment, and long-term health; promoting updated clinical education and coordinated care; advising agencies on pilot programs; and consulting with states, tribes, and community, faith-based, and private-sector partners. It may hold public hearings, and HHS will fund the Task Force’s administrative costs. The EO sets out an ambitious agenda, but its structure and the administration’s recent record may limit its near-term effect.

Funding and enforceability. The EO acknowledges that “previous administrations have invested in women’s health research,” but asserts that federal efforts must be enhanced, streamlined, and elevated. To that end, it revokes the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which President Biden established through Executive Order 14120 and a 2023 Presidential Memorandum, and replaces it with the new NIH Division and White House Task Force.

The two approaches differ markedly in both resources and reach. The Biden initiative requested a $12 billion congressional investment in a dedicated women’s health fund and directed every federal agency engaged in health research to prioritize advancements in women’s health. By contrast, the new EO operates “subject to the availability of appropriations,” and the only spending it directs is HHS support for the Task Force’s administrative costs. It requests no dedicated funding for the Division’s research, and its directives target a defined set of agencies rather than all agencies engaged in health research. This gap has not gone unnoticed: leading women’s health organizations, including the Society for Women’s Health Research and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, endorsed the new Division but called for a $20 billion investment in women’s health over 10 years.

The EO’s accountability mechanisms are also limited. Beyond the 90-day deadline to establish the Division, it sets no other deadlines, reporting requirements, or measurable targets. Pilot programs proceed only “as deemed appropriate by the agency head,” and the EO creates no enforceable rights.

Recent research cuts. The absence of dedicated funding in the EO is particularly significant because the EO arrives after a period of substantial reductions in federal funding for health research. Between February and August 2025, NIH terminated 2,291 grants and rescinded $2.45 billion. The funding terminations disproportionately affected female researchers, with women-led projects losing a larger share of active funding than those led by men (57.9% versus 48.2%).

Federal funding cuts have also directly impacted women’s health research. In April 2025, HHS moved to end contracts for the Women’s Health Initiative, a 30-year study of more than 161,000 women, before reversing course in May of the same year. Appropriators in both parties, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), have tied declining women’s health research funding to the administration’s NIH cuts and budgets.

The EO was issued the same day as an October 19, 2026, NIH announcement, part of the Make America Healthy Again initiative, highlighting interest in implementation research on women’s health, including maternal and mental health, reproductive and midlife health, cancer prevention, chronic disease, and military and veteran women’s health. Like the EO, the announcement commits no dedicated funding to this initiative, so whether it yields new awards remains uncertain given the recent grant terminations.

Related agency actions. Beyond research funding, several agency actions over the past two years affecting reproductive and emergency care, menopause treatment, and family planning bear directly on the outcomes the EO seeks to improve and may complicate its implementation.

• Emergency pregnancy care. As discussed in our previous publication, effective May 29, 2025, CMS rescinded its 2022 guidance reinforcing hospitals’ EMTALA obligations to patients who are pregnant or experiencing pregnancy loss, citing administration policy and Executive Order 14192. The guidance had stated that EMTALA’s stabilization duty, which can include abortion care for conditions such as ectopic pregnancy or severe preeclampsia, preempts directly conflicting state law.
• Mifepristone review. In a September 2025 letter to state attorneys general, Secretary Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Makary announced an FDA review of mifepristone’s safety and its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. The Department of Justice has since told a federal court that results will not be released publicly until March 2027.
• Title X family planning. In April 2026, HHS announced that, for the first time, applicants for Title X family planning funding must align their programs with the administration’s policy priorities. Under the 2027 funding notice, applicants must eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, recognize male and female as the only two sexes, and encourage abstinence and “natural family planning” instead of contraception.

Where NIH places the new Women’s Health Division, how it is staffed and resourced, and which grant priorities the Task Force sets will offer early signals of the administration’s women’s health funding priorities. Those decisions warrant particular attention in the weeks surrounding the November midterm elections, when the administration’s health agenda is likely to draw increased scrutiny from Congress and the public. Ultimately, the EO’s reach will depend on FY2027 appropriations and whether Congress provides dedicated funding for the Division’s work. Foley Hoag will continue to monitor developments regarding the Women’s Health Division, the White House Women’s Health Task Force, and implementation of the EO.