Women’s-health order sets 90-day deadline for NIH division
By Staff Writer · Published 10/20/2026, 3:13:57 PM ET
An October 19 executive order sets a 90-day deadline and establishes an interagency task force. It replaces two earlier directives and does not create an enforceable patient benefit.
President Donald Trump has directed federal health officials to establish a women’s-health division at the National Institutes of Health within 90 days. The October 19 executive order assigns that task to the health secretary, working through NIH’s director, and sets up a separate White House task force.
The order places the planned division within an NIH institute or center, working with NIH’s existing Office of Research on Women’s Health. Its duties include coordinating research, improving sex-specific data and clinical-trial participation, and strengthening checks that grant-funded research considers biological sex.
The health secretary and White House chief of staff will jointly lead the task force. Its responsibilities include linking research to clinical practice and consulting states, local governments and other organizations about implementation.
First Lady Melania Trump promoted the initiative in an October 19 announcement and prepared remarks. Her priorities include research on conditions affecting women, new scientific technology, safe development of treatments, affordability and wider discussion of women’s health.
The order revokes a March 18, 2024, executive order and a November 13, 2023, presidential memorandum on women’s-health research. It makes implementation conditional on available appropriations and says it does not establish an enforceable right or benefit.
What it means
The confirmed changes are a 90-day instruction to establish an NIH division and the creation of an interagency task force under President Trump’s October 19 order. Melania Trump outlined research and access goals; the order directs coordination with NIH’s existing women’s-health research office and replaces two prior initiatives. Implementation remains subject to available funding; the order creates no enforceable patient benefit.
Source
This State & Nation summary is based on Office of the First Lady, The White House’s original release, dated 2026-10-19. The reporting and statistics above are attributed to that publication.