The federal government’s decision to cut funding for the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) is a devastating blow - not just to science, but to every woman in this country.

This isn’t just a budget cut. It’s a message: that women's health doesn’t matter.

The WHI was the first and largest study centered on women. For decades, it led the way in uncovering life-saving truths about women’s bodies: dispelling dangerous myths, improving treatment for chronic illnesses, and giving women answers where there once were none. This groundbreaking study, launched in the 1990s, corrected the deep imbalance in medical research that for too long ignored women entirely.

Tens of thousands of women have dedicated their lives to this research. Scientists have poured their passion and expertise into making sure future generations wouldn’t be treated as afterthoughts in medicine. Now, in one sweeping act, it’s being dismantled.

Losing the WHI now, when we are closer than ever to understanding how chronic diseases uniquely affect women, including Alzheimer's and heart failure, is reckless and cruel. It will set back decades of progress and silence the very people we should be listening to.

We demand that Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services immediately restore full funding to the Women's Health Initiative. Our mothers, daughters, and grandmothers deserve better. Women’s health is not expendable.