Last week, the Trump administration announced an executive order focused on women’s health, leading to mixed reactions from women’s health experts.
The executive order will establish a new Women’s Health Division within the National Institutes of Health, which seeks to expand research, accelerate medical breakthroughs and improve women’s health outcomes, according to the announcement. The division will focus on a variety of conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, endometriosis, fibroids, polyendocrine metabolic ovary syndrome (PMOS), infertility, maternal health, menopause, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.
The order also establishes a White House Women’s Health Task Force, which will be co-chaired by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. The task force will “coordinate federal efforts to improve women’s health from infancy and adolescence through the reproductive years, midlife, menopause, and healthy aging,” according to the announcement.
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One healthcare expert is skeptical about the women’s health executive order, noting that it’s coming during midterms.
“It’s election season, and he has some of the lowest acceptance rates right now as part of this administration. And women’s health is a sexy topic across all different specialties and fields right now, and industries. And I think it’s a ploy to try and get voters to vote for them,” said Nada Hanafi, founder and manager of MedTech Strategy Advisors and co-founder of Women’s Health Advocates.
She argued that the administration has already taken several steps to undermine women’s health, including supporting the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
“During this administration’s tenure, in an extremely short period of time, they’ve managed to wipe out major public health initiatives,” she said. “It’s just been a cascade of harms that are targeting vulnerable populations, including women. I mean, they take credit for overturning Roe v. Wade [which is a] basic human right, basic female right.”
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Hanafi did note, however, that a positive of this executive order is that it names a variety of conditions that impact women, including cancer, mental health and endometriosis.
The National Women’s Law Center echoed Hanafi’s concerns about the executive order, arguing that it comes as the administration’s actions are causing women to lose access to necessary healthcare services.
“From the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s cuts to Medicaid and the defunding of Planned Parenthood, to gutting the federal Offices of Minority Health and slashing funding for women’s health research, this administration has made it clear that it doesn’t actually care about women’s health care needs, despite what this weak executive order attempts to convey. This is an attempt to change the headlines, not women’s lives,” said Dorianne Mason, senior director of health equity and contraceptive access at NWLC, in a statement.
Another women’s health expert had a less skeptical view of the executive order.
“It’s always exciting when the government steps forward and prioritizes women’s health. We love that. I was excited to see the emphasis on the holistic view of women’s health, head to toe, over the lifespan. … I think that we just have to see how this is actually implemented,” said Liz Powell, founder and president of G2G Consulting and founder of Women’s Health Advocates.
Powell also applauded that the task force includes several different departments, including HHS, the Department of War, the CDC, NIH, VA, Education and Labor.
What experts want out of the executive order
Powell said that she would like to see this executive order focus on more research dollars in the women’s health space, as well as ensuring that FDA approval systems are streamlined. In addition, she’d like to see advancements in the reimbursement of women’s health.
Hanafi added that she would have preferred if the White House built on the Biden administration’s initiative on women’s health research, which the Trump administration rescinded.
“I think in healthcare, you’re in it for service, and in this world we have to learn to work together and work across the aisles, like truly be bipartisan. … It would have been nice to say we’re going to build on those efforts and augment and fill in any gaps there. But you didn’t, so you’re having to start from scratch and recreate the wheel, and it’s a wheel that’s not equitable or driven with an equitable lens,” she said.
Hanafi also said she would like to see a clear budget for the effort. She noted that the Biden administration committed more than $100 million through ARPA-H for women’s health research and also asked Congress for $12 billion in funding.
Powell also emphasized the importance of building off previous administrations.
“We should be building, getting better, stronger, more accurate. Better science, better outcomes is what we ideally want,” she said. “I do hope that happens with this, and that whoever’s in office, they see this is not a partisan issue. All of our healthcare is better when it’s more accurate and more precise.”
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