First lady spotlights women’s health research in Atlanta

ATLANTA (CN) — First lady Jill Biden traveled to Atlanta on Wednesday as part of a White House initiative to advance research into women’s health, speaking first at an event for a volunteer group associated with the Morehouse School of Medicine and then at a panel discussion with health industry leaders.

The first lady’s visit was organized as part of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which is led by Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council. First announced in November, the initiative aims to bridge health inequities and maximize the federal government's investments in women’s health research.

Biden kicked off her afternoon in Atlanta at the Morehouse School of Medicine’s Women with Heart luncheon in a ballroom inside the Georgia Aquarium. Wearing a red dress to match the outfits of hundreds of women in the audience commemorating February’s American Heart Month, the first lady said the focus of the initiative is to “fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds women’s health research.”

“Even though women are half the population, research on women’s health has always been underfunded,” she said. “Too many medical studies have focused on men and left women out.”

The annual luncheon raises money for Women with Heart, an organization that raises community awareness of heart health and provides scholarship funds to students at the historically Black medical school.

“For 15 years, the women in this room have been committed to raising awareness about heart disease and learning from each other, about one another,” the first lady said.

The event, which marked the organization's 15th anniversary, also included speeches from three women who survived cardiac events.

In her brief address, Biden lamented the unfair treatment some women experience in the health care system, telling the crowd that the Biden-Harris administration wants to work towards a health care system where “women aren’t just an afterthought but a first thought.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 60 million women in the United States are living with some form of heart disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S.

“There are big gaps in research on diseases and conditions that only affect women, that disproportionately affect women or that affect women and men differently,” the first lady said, adding that women of color and disabled women are often excluded at even higher rates.

Data from the CDC shows that Black women are at higher risk for factors associated with heart disease. Black women are nearly 60% more likely to have high blood pressure than white women and experience higher rates of cardiovascular disease, coronary disease and stroke deaths.

At a panel discussion later in the afternoon, the first lady spoke with local leaders, health researchers and private sector investors who are focused on accelerating progress on women’s health. Much of the 45-minute discussion centered on how partnerships can be created between scientific institutions and corporate entities to drive funding for more research.

“The federal government can’t do all this alone, so we need research universities to develop breakthroughs, investors who believe in those ideas, start-ups that bring those ideas to the market, doctors who transmit those ideas into treatment plans and government and advocates to bring everyone together,” Biden said.

The first lady’s visit comes one day after Vice President Kamala Harris also traveled to the Peach State. Harris was in Savannah on Tuesday as part of a nationwide tour to address abortion and reproductive rights.

In a speech at the Savannah Civic Center, Harris labeled state lawmakers “extremists” for restricting abortions and passing laws that “criminalize doctors and punish women” since the U.S. Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022.

In October 2023, Georgia’s highest court upheld the state’s law banning most abortion procedures after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

Follow @KaylaGoggin_CNS

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