Biden Celebrates Women’s History Month With Executive Order Directing $200M Towards Women’s Health Research

Finally a leader that takes women's health seriously!

President Joe Biden is celebrating Women’s Health Month in a significant way by signing an executive order to expand the reach of improving women’s health research.

On Mar. 19, Biden signed an order that directed corresponding agencies to strengthen research and data standards on women’s health to put federal funds to better use. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be instructed to spend $200 million on women’s health research. At the same time, the Office of Management and Budget and the Gender Policy Council will assess gaps in federal funding for women’s health and identify potential changes.

With First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Harris, and women’s health advocate Maria Shriver by his side, Biden hopes the order will push for innovation in the women’s health space and said the measure is long overdue. “Think of all the breakthroughs we’ve made in medicine across the board. But women have not been the focus,” the President said.

“Research has taken much too long to get to y’all.”

In front of a crowded audience in the East Room of the White House, Biden touched on the efforts constructed by his predecessor and GOP members of Congress restricting women’s access to health care while promising to reinstate Roe v. Wade as the law of the land if he’s reelected. “Our basic freedoms are under assault – the freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and so much more,” Biden said, according to CNN.

“My predecessor and his allies in Congress make no apologies for it, but here’s the deal: In the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court wrote, ‘Women are not without electoral and/or political power.'”

Biden’s moves are garnering significant support from women’s health advocates. Dr. Carolyn Mazure, the chair of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, called the measure “transformative.” “This is a huge opportunity for transformative change and will help improve the health and lives of women all across the country,” Mazure said.

First Lady Jill Biden touched on how conditions are often overlooked because of the lack of funding. In February 2024, the First Lady announced $100 million in federal funding for research and development into women’s health through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

“We simply don’t know enough about how to prevent, detect, and treat the conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently,” First Lady Biden said. “And that’s the result of choice: Because, for decades, ‘business as usual’ has meant understudying and underfunding research on women’s health. Your president believes this is unacceptable.”