Trump signs executive order creating women's health division within NIH

Washington — President Trump on Monday signed an executive order creating a women's health division within the National Institutes of Health and a White House Women's Health Task Force.

First lady Melania Trump joined him for a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden and said the executive order will make progress on five objectives: 

• Directing research funding to find cures that disproportionately affect women.
• Using artificial intelligence to speed up medical discoveries.
• Accelerating new therapeutics for women.
• Delivering medical breakthroughs for women at an affordable price.
• Making conversations about women's health less taboo. 

"This is a transformative moment for women in America," the first lady said. "Beginning today, we will change the reality of women's health. 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."

Mr. Trump credited the first lady with conceiving the idea for a women's health division within NIH. The first lady added her signature to the executive order after the president did, although her signature has no legal weight. 

"Think of it, a women's health division," Mr. Trump said. "Who the hell wouldn't have a women's health division? Melania said, 'They don't have it.'"

The president said Americans will soon hear about "incredible things that we're doing" to get women the care they need, although he didn't offer specifics. It's not yet clear how much funding will be directed toward research funding, accelerating therapeutics, or making medical breakthroughs more affordable for women.

During an interview on "CBS Mornings" Tuesday, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said the amount of funding for the new project was still undetermined.

"The first lady made it very clear that she wants to focus on topics in women's health that have been just neglected, you know, endometriosis, menopause, a whole host of topics that, you know, frankly, we've underinvested in, learned less about than we should have over the years," Bhattacharya said. "And so it's very, very exciting, and, yes, some new money will very likely be devoted to this, although that's still to be determined exactly how much."

Bhattacharya was joined on "CBS Mornings" by the director of the government's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, Alicia Jackson. She said Mr. Trump's executive order directs agencies to use funding on critical issues in women's health.

"We're going to have several announcements over the course of this year where we are putting — and our agency has the liberty and the luxury of doing this — but $100 million, $200 million towards massive efforts that impact women, to drive solutions as quickly as possible," Jackson said.

The women's health announcement comes on the heels of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles' battle with breast cancer. She continued in the job after her March diagnosis, and in September announced she is cancer-free.

Mr. Trump gave a shout-out to Wiles during Monday's announcement, calling her "fantastic."

"I don't know if Susie wants this brought up, but as many of you know, Susie recently won her battle against a very tough opponent, breast cancer," the president said. "It wasn't easy. We went through it, we got her through it, and she got through it, and she's tough. But she's a tremendous fighter and much like our first lady, she cares deeply about improving the health of American women." 

White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said the White House task force "will work to close critical research gaps and strengthen care for women across all stages of life, targeting some of the most widespread health conditions affecting them."