On April 21, Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) investigators were informed that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will terminate WHI Regional Center (RC) contracts at the end of the current fiscal year, in September 2025.
The Women’s Health Initiative is a long-term national health study founded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Its main areas of research include cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporotic fractures. While WHI continues to focus on strategies to prevent the leading causes of death, disability, and frailty in older women, the breadth and richness of its data allow for the exploration of many more research questions related to women’s health and aging.
The termination of contracts by HHS will significantly impact ongoing research and data collection. The loss or interruption of this data will severely limit WHI’s ability to generate new insights into the health of older women, one of the fastest-growing demographics in the United States.
WHI is credited with many notable achievements, including but not limited to:
- Over 2,400 scientific publications
- 342 independently funded ancillary studies
- Over 5,000 investigators publishing results
The organization is still assessing the full extent of the impact these cuts will have. However, it is certain they will have detrimental effects on research related to the health and aging of postmenopausal women.
“This was really meant as a makeup project for women, because women have been excluded from research for so many years,” said Garnet Anderson, a biostatistician who runs the WHI Coordinating Center.
Senator Patty Murray responded to the announcement, stating, “this is a devastating loss for women’s health research. It’s unacceptable and truly tragic that the Trump administration has decided to pull the plug on one of the most influential studies in the world, one that has led to enormous breakthroughs in preventing chronic disease.”
Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which oversees the WHI programs, was given just one week to review 16,000 contracts to identify $2.6 billion in cuts. This represents roughly 35 percent of its total contracts. NIH recently sent a letter to Republican senators pleading for a delay in terminations, warning that “there is no way to implement these cuts without damaging the NIH mission.” Contracts set for termination include those related to microscope maintenance, lab equipment, biospecimen storage, and nursing staff for clinical trials.
These cuts reinforce the Trump administration’s ongoing disregard for women’s health. This is not just an administrative decision with budgetary implications, it is a clear and targeted attack on women, particularly aging and postmenopausal women, whose health outcomes have historically been overlooked in medical research. The Women’s Health Initiative was created to address decades of exclusion and neglect in clinical studies. Dismantling its infrastructure risks reversing that progress.
What makes the timing even more troubling is the administration’s simultaneous interest in policies aimed at encouraging women to have more children. The hypocrisy is blatant. You cannot urge women to expand their families while actively undermining the research and resources needed to ensure their long-term health and safety. Cutting WHI funding sends a message that women’s health only matters when it serves political or economic ends.
If this decision stands, it will not only harm current research but also silence future discoveries that could save lives. Women deserve better. Science deserves better. And the American public deserves transparency and accountability when decisions of this magnitude are made.
