President Joe Biden signed an executive order to expand women’s healthcare research and strengthen data standards. The President also announced more than 20 new actions and commitments by federal agencies, including $200 million for research at the National Institutes of Health.
The White House described the investments as a first step toward a “Fund on Women’s Health” that Biden called Congress to invest in during his State of the Union address earlier this month. Similarly, First Lady Jill Biden announced $100 million in funding for women’s health last month.
In remarks at a Women’s History Month event at the White House, the President said that women are not underrepresented in his administration despite being “underrepresented across the board.” “We’re proud to have an administration that looks like America,” Joe Biden said. “With more women serving in a senior position than any time in American history.”
Joe Biden Shows Appreciation
The PrePresidentaised Vice President Kamala Harris, his Supreme Court pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and women in the Defense Department’s top ranks, including the first woman confirmed to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Joe stressed that research “has taken much too long” to address women’s health care and said his executive order directs “the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to improve” women’s health.
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What Does Joe Biden Have To Say Regarding Women’s Health?
“I’m going to make sure women’s health is prioritized across the government,” Biden told a room full of women, including actress Halle Berry and former California First Lady Maria Shriver, at the White House.
The National Institutes of Health is also launching a new effort around menopause and the treatment of menopausal symptoms that will identify research gaps and work to close them, aides say.
Women globally live five years longer than men on average but spend 25% more of their lives in poor health, according to the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute. They remain underrepresented in clinical trials, and conditions affecting women are researched less than those that impact men.
Aides also say the executive order will require medical research to better track differences between women and men. “Medications, treatments, and medical school textbooks are based on men and their bodies, but that ends today,” the First Lady said. “Finally, women will get the health care they deserve.”
$12 Billion To Fund Women’s Health
Joe Biden has asked Congress for $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research. Still, new financial commitments are hard to pass in a politically divided legislature during an election year. If Congress grants the funding levels Biden has requested, the administration will spend the $200 million investment announced during the 2025 fiscal year, which starts this October 2024.
Notably, Biden is seeking another four-year term in November’s election against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate. Women make up more than half of the electorate. Hence, Democrats think attacks on women’s healthcare could animate voters in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade abortion rights in 2022.
Biden’s Criticism
The President criticized Republicans who opposed the American Rescue Plan, the Covid-era economic stimulus bill that he signed into law, saying its increase in the child tax credit “cut child poverty nearly in half.” He also warned that his opponents underestimate the “power of women” at the ballot box.
“Those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade, who support a national abortion ban, have no clue about the power of women,” he said, referring to conservatives who support the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn the landmark ruling.
“They’re going to speak out again in 2024 and send me a Democratic Congress that supports reproductive freedom,” he added, referring to female voters. “I promise you, I promise you we will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.”
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Carolyn Mazure, chairperson of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, commended Biden’s initiative. She said there has never been “such a comprehensive effort from the federal government to spur innovation, women’s health and ensure that relevant federally funded research works harder for women.”
Mazure stated, “This is a huge opportunity for transformative change and will help improve the health and lives of women all across the country.”
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