Congresswomen Cherfilus-McCormick, Chu, Pressley, and Morrison Demand Restoration of the Office of Research on Women’s Health
WASHINGTON, D.C. ─ Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL-20) alongside Representatives Chu, Pressley, and Morrison led a letter with 51 colleagues to the Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), demanding he take immediate action to restore the Office of Research on Women’s Health website and reinstate archived webpages.
The NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) is dedicated to promoting research on women's health issues. It ensures that sex and gender differences are considered in biomedical and behavioral studies, advocates for women's health research priorities, and works to improve the quality of healthcare for women. The ORWH also supports initiatives to address health disparities and promote women's involvement in scientific research, particularly in areas where women have historically been underrepresented.
Recently, the ORWH website has been significantly pared down in compliance with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI executive orders. Several key web pages have been removed, including critical women’s health information, data sets for researchers, and funding opportunities to encourage women’s health research.
“The decimation of the ORWH will have real, negative impacts on the quality of care women receive across the country,” said Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick. “At a time when breakthroughs in women’s health research are lagging, this administration is actively exacerbating stark disparities in women’s health outcomes. I thank my colleagues for joining me in this effort to hold the administration accountable for its harmful actions.”
“In just two weeks, the Trump Administration has taken down over 8,000 web pages—over 3,000 of which focused on science and health, including those related to HIV prevention, sexually transmitted infections, birth control, and women’s health,” said Rep. Chu (D-CA-28). “The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) is the only federal office fully dedicated to advancing women’s health, and the Trump Administration’s removal of essential information from the ORWH website—such as guidance on women and minorities in clinical trials, funding opportunities for women’s health research, and resources for women in biomedical careers—puts women’s health at risk and undermine our ability to provide quality care and advance scientific innovation. I’m joining Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick and my fellow Democratic Women’s Caucus Reproductive Health Care Task Force Co-Chairs, Reps. Pressley and Morrison, in demanding that NIH restore the ORWH webpages immediately and support women's health.”
“This is yet another effort from the Trump-Vance Administration to undermine women’s health,” said Congresswoman Morrison (D-MN-03). “Women’s health research is already underfunded and under-studied, and cutting access to information only makes it worse. We are calling for these critical resources to be restored and for women’s health research initiatives to be bolstered.”
“This harmful action by the new administration is an attack on women that will entrench the many health disparities we face, and we’re calling on them to reverse course.” said Congresswoman Pressley (D-MA-7), Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus and member of the Democratic Women’s Caucus. “Every level of government should be using every tool available to protect women’s health and expand access to critical research and other resources—not shutting them down or erasing them under the guise of ‘ending diversity, equity and inclusion”.
Full text of the letter can be found here.