By COLLEEN LONG (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday to improve the study of women’s health by enhancing data collection and providing better funding opportunities for biomedical research while criticizing Republicans for lacking understanding of the power of women and warning that they will realize it in November’s election.
Women’s health has been underfunded and understudied for a long time. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the federal government required women to be included in publicly funded medical research. Throughout most of medical history, scientific research was primarily based on men.
“We still know too little about how to effectively prevent, diagnose and treat a wide range of health conditions in women,” said Dr. Carolyn Mazure, the head of the White House initiative on women’s health.
Currently, research often fails to adequately track differences between women and men, and does not equally represent women, especially for illnesses more common in women. Biden suggested that his order would help change this situation.
“To state the obvious, women make up half of the population and are underrepresented across the board. But not in my administration,” the president said, receiving enthusiastic applause at a White House reception celebrating Women’s History Month.
Biden stated that he has long believed in the “power of research” to save lives and provide high-quality healthcare to those in need. However, the executive order also caters to political concerns during an election year when women will be critical to his reelection efforts. First lady Jill Biden is leading the initiative to organize and mobilize female voters and the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.
The announcement comes as the repercussions are felt from the Supreme Court’s decision overturning federal abortion rights, affecting medical issues for women who did not intend to terminate their pregnancies. For instance, in Alabama, the future of IVF was cast into uncertainty statewide following a judge’s ruling.
During his remarks at the reception, Biden did not mention former President Donald Trump by name, who is seeking to regain the White House. Instead, he referred to “my predecessor” who had been “boasting about overturning” the Roe v. Wade decision that had confirmed the constitutional right to abortion.
The president suggested that this would damage Trump and the GOP in the upcoming election, stating, “You can’t lead America with old ideas and take us backward.”
Continuing to delve into politics, Biden said his administration has “turned around the economy because we focused on women,” noting that female unemployment had decreased and the number of women-owned small businesses had risen.
He stated that his administration has made sure that “women can access jobs in fields where they’ve historically been underrepresented” and mentioned that he had informed leaders from some of the nation’s top labor unions of his desire to see more women and minorities in their ranks.
Women played a crucial role in helping Biden win the 2020 election, with 55% of their vote going to him. Black women and suburban women were key supporters of Biden, while Trump had a small advantage among white women and a much larger share of white women without college degrees, according to a survey of over 110,000 voters by the AP.
Vice President Kamala Harris, women’s health advocate Maria Shriver and the first lady also spoke at the event.
Jill Biden said that women will finally receive the healthcare they deserve, emphasizing that the order signed Monday was unprecedented.
Harris received strong applause for acknowledging her historic role as the first woman vice president of the United States and discussing her recent visit to an abortion clinic in Minnesota.
The vice president criticized Republican states that have restricted access to abortion, saying they are trying to take the country backward.
Harris raised the question of what kind of country we want to live in, emphasizing the choice between a country of liberty, freedom and rule of law, or a country of disorder, fear and hate.
Shriver humorously pointed out that this might be the first time a president has signed an executive order mentioning menopause, and suggested that only a president who respects women would take such action.
White House adviser Jennifer Klein announced that the National Institutes of Health is launching a new effort focused on menopause and the treatment of menopausal symptoms to address research gaps and work towards closing them. NIH funds a large amount of biomedical research, crucial for understanding how medications affect the human body and determining appropriate dosage.
Some health conditions have different symptoms for women and men, like heart disease, while others, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are more common in women. There are also conditions unique to women, like endometriosis, uterine cancers and fibroids. This presents great opportunities for study, according to Mazure.
Uneven research can have significant impacts; a 2020 study found that women were suffering side effects from medications because most of the dosage trials were conducted only on men.
The first lady revealed last month that $100 million in funding has been allocated for women’s health.
