Trump Is Waging War On Women's Health

The following is part of a posting by Dan Rather:

We have made so many advances in my lifetime, especially as they relate to gender equality, and that includes women’s health. It may not always seem true, but as someone who has witnessed it firsthand, I can promise that we are worlds away from where we were back in the 1950s, when health care for women was an afterthought.

But all that progress is quickly being undone by our current political leadership, helmed by Donald Trump. It is beyond maddening to see women’s health initiatives eradicated. If you’re not angered by this, perhaps you are unaware of what is happening. It is a sad and frightening state of affairs.

Trump has overseen a relentless and holistic campaign against women’s autonomy and health. His anti-woman fixation fits nicely into the MAGA agenda, harkening back to the 1950s and ’60s when women had few rights and fewer opportunities. They couldn’t own property or serve on a jury. Access to education and most professions beyond teacher or nurse was restricted. Oral contraception was just becoming available, but only married women could get it. And unlike today, few women were doctors.

Today many of those doctors are taking action. The largest organization of women’s health providers, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), has announced it will no longer accept federal funding. It is the only American medical organization to reject federal dollars, so far.

ACOG said in a statement that “Recent changes in federal funding laws and regulations significantly impact ACOG's program goals, policy positions, and ability to provide timely and evidence-based guidance and recommendations for care.”

Those “recent changes” include the slashing of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that by definition comprise most of the work provided by ACOG doctors, since the Trump administration considers any programs that assist only women to be DEI. In other words, efforts aimed not at the general public but rather for a specific demographic group are now labeled DEI and are verboten.

ACOG pointed to several changes instituted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that hurt women and run counter to years of scientific research. For example, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rescinded the recommendation that pregnant women receive the Covid-19 vaccine but provided no science-based evidence for the policy change. And the FDA has recently expressed skepticism about antidepressant use during pregnancy, despite significant medical evidence that such treatments are safe. . . .

American women’s health care was at a crisis point even before the Trump administration stomped in and imposed its regressive policies.

Historically, women’s health care has been severely underfunded and under-researched. While women live an average of 4.5 years longer than men, they spend 25% more time in ill health, according to a study by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey. The study points to a disparity in the effectiveness of treatment for women versus men.

While spending on U.S. health care has more than doubled in 20 years, the share allocated to women’s health specifically has declined. The 2005 National Institutes of Health budget allocated 13.5% for research related to women’s health. In 2025 that declined to just over 10%. Overall, only 1% of health care research money is spent on female-specific conditions beyond oncology, according to a 2021 analysis by McKinsey.

The U.S. maternal mortality rate is the highest among high-income countries. American mothers are 10 times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications than mothers in Australia, Israel, Japan, or Spain, according to the CDC.

Women make up 41% of clinical trial participants. For heart disease trials, only 33% are women, according to NIH. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, killing more women than all cancers combined.

Of the 37 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022, just two were for female-specific illnesses or conditions, according to Deloitte. Low approvals for drugs for women’s health issues are not an outlier but a trend.

Trump may think he is winning the battle against women, but the 2026 midterms offer an opportunity to let him know that most Americans in general, and women in particular, won’t allow this assault on their health care without a fight.