President Biden on Monday signed an executive order to expand the federal government’s research into women’s health, including midlife conditions like menopause, arthritis and heart disease, as well as issues specifically affecting women in the military.
In what the White House described as the “most comprehensive” action by a president on women’s health research, Mr. Biden directed federal agencies to ensure that they are using federal funds to research health conditions and diseases that disproportionately affect women.
Standing alongside the first lady, Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, Mr. Biden said improving women’s health was crucial to guaranteeing a healthy, stable economy.
“There’s not a damn thing a man can do a woman can’t do,” Mr. Biden said. “To state the obvious, if you want to have the strongest economy in the world, you can’t leave half of the country behind.”
Carolyn M. Mazure, a psychologist and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, who is the chairwoman of the White House initiative on Women’s Health Research, told reporters on Sunday night that health conditions like heart disease, Alzheimer’s, menopause and fibroids would be a focus of the expanded research effort.
“I’m not even a betting woman,” said Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California, who also attended the event, “but I’ll bet today that this is the first time a president of the United States has ever signed an executive order that mentions the words ‘menopause’ and ‘women’s midlife health’ in it.”
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos should be considered children, threatening in vitro fertilization, the Biden campaign has increasingly accused Republicans of undermining women’s health. During his State of the Union address this month, Mr. Biden said such decisions would motivate women to vote in the November election, while also saying his White House would commit to investing in women’s health in the year ahead.
“You can’t lead America with old ideas and take us backwards,” Mr. Biden said, adding, “To lead the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future laying out what we can and should do and what we’re going to do.”
Mr. Biden’s executive order will require agencies to report annually their investments in women’s health research and to study ways that artificial intelligence can be used to advance such research. The National Institutes of Health will increase by 50 percent investments in small businesses focused on women’s health. The Defense Department also plans to invest $10 million to learn more about cancers and mental health issues affecting women in active military service.
The White House has called on Congress to pass a plan to invest $12 billion to create a new fund for women’s health research at the National Institutes of Health. In the meantime, the executive order signed on Monday directed the N.I.H. to spend $200 million on women’s health research. Dr. Biden traveled to Cambridge, Mass., last month to announce the first step of the women’s health initiative: $100 million to support women’s health researchers and start-up companies.