100+ Women's Health Advocates Press Congress to End Funding, Reimbursement & Regulatory Gaps

Women’s Health Advocates Convenes Second Annual Capitol Hill Day with Members of Congress, Demonstrating the Power of the National Movement

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A midterm mandate on women’s health is coming to Capitol Hill. Women’s Health Advocates (WHA), the nation’s only bipartisan lobbying organization educating and advocating for the health of women from head to toe across the lifespan is convening its Second Annual Women’s Health Capitol Hill Day on May 21st, bringing more than 100 executives and advocates from across the country to Congress to share policy recommendations to end decades of underfunding, research gaps, and systemic inequities in women’s health care. With the FY2027 appropriations process underway, the bills are being written now so timing is critical to influencing the process before Members focus exclusively on their re-election campaigns this fall.

The day’s centerpiece, the WHA’s Congressional Briefing, “From Evidence to Access: Advancing Women’s Health through Innovation and Policy,” features leading physicians, CEOs, researchers, and policy experts alongside four members of Congress: Rep. Yassamin Ansari (AZ), Rep. Grace Meng (NY), Rep. Kelly Morrison, MD (MN), and Rep. Debbie Dingell (MI). The focus is on educating Congress on gaps and tangible ways to start to close them with more funding for women’s health research that is integrated throughout NIH and DoW, an accelerated regulatory pathway for innovations, better coverage and reimbursement policy for breast cancer screening, endometriosis and surgical parity overall for procedures, among others.

WHA is led by founder and lobbyist Liz Powell, Esq., MPH, and draws from a network of almost 5,000 advocates across all 50 states — including CEOs, physicians, nurses, VCs, investors, nonprofit leaders, researchers, policy experts, and patients.

“There’s never been a convening of this force of women’s health advocates coming to Washington to connect the dots on all the conditions affecting women’s health. In our first year, we demonstrated what’s possible when women’s health advocates speak with one voice — and we delivered real results, securing increased funding for the Office of Research on Women's Health, the inclusion of the definition of women's health, and menopause funding” said Liz Powell, Esq., MPH, Founder and CEO of Women’s Health Advocates. “Today, we return to Capitol Hill with a legislative agenda, a national coalition that’s doubled in size, and the momentum of a movement that keeps growing by the day. Year two is about turning this progress into policy change, and we won’t stop until women’s health gaps are closed.”

“Women’s health has been underfunded, understudied, and underestimated for far too long — that ends now,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari. “That’s exactly why I introduced the Health, Equity and Rights (HER) Agenda: to make sure Congress finally treats women’s pain as a policy priority, not an afterthought. Today, seeing advocates from across nearly 25 states come to Capitol Hill to demand better research and funding shows the power of women’s voices coming together to advocate for change. I am proud to partner with Women’s Health Advocates in working across this country to advance the health of women.”

"As an OB-GYN who has cared for patients for more than 20 years, advancing women’s health and access to care is one of my top priorities. Conversations like this one make it possible for us to work together to ensure Congress prioritizes women’s health, from reproductive health access to menopause care research. I’m grateful to Women’s Health Advocates for this opportunity to hear directly from the people engaging in this critically important work and I look forward to continuing to explore more opportunities to improve women’s health care,” said Congresswoman Kelly Morrison.

LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

Advocates will press Congress on seven specific, fundable priorities:

- $200M for an interdisciplinary women’s health research fund across NIH institutes — ending silos, enabling data-sharing, and mandating Sex as a Biological Variable in all studies.
- $115M for the Office of Research on Women’s Health to close gaps across conditions affecting women solely, disproportionately, and/or differently.
- $5M for the NIH Menopause Research Into Action Network, launched last year.
- $10M for Women Warfighter Health & Readiness research within the Department of Defense.
- The Find It Early Act: ensuring all women can access accurate early screening with zero co-pay. Up to half of all women have dense breasts — meaning mammograms alone cannot detect cancer.
- CMS Reimbursement Parity: correcting a system that reimburses the same procedures ~30% more when performed on male patients, including appropriate reimbursement rates for excision surgery for endometriosis.
- FDA Women’s Health Innovation Pilot: a dedicated pathway to accelerate life-changing innovations reaching patients faster.

Women are 51% of the U.S. population, yet women’s health remains underfunded, under-researched, and overlooked. Women live longer but in poorer health for 25% more of their lives. However, with a better understanding and utilization of sex differences, our healthcare system would vastly improve and save lives—ending the missed symptoms of a heart attack that leads to higher mortality rates for the #1 killer of women and men, the two-thirds of all Alzheimer’s patients being women, the adverse drug events that are twice as common across 19 of 20 FAERS categories, and the diagnostic odyssey and ineffective care that women face when experiencing conditions that solely, disproportionately and/or differently impact women.

ABOUT WOMEN’S HEALTH ADVOCATES
Founded in February 2025, Women’s Health Advocates (WHA) is the nation’s only bipartisan lobbying organization educating and advocating to advance the health of women from head to toe across the lifespan. WHA leverages its extensive lobbying skills, deep health expertise, and national grassroots mobilization in all 50 states to shape policies and funding decisions. Led by Liz Powell, Esq., MPH – who brings over two decades of lobbying and Hill experience – WHA has almost doubled in size in one year, tapping into a population fed up with how they are treated in the health care system and determined to use their voice to advocate and vote for better care. The WHA Steering Committee is composed of leaders from businesses, VC firms, nonprofits, clinical care, research and patient advocacy organizations. With the focus on turning urgency into visibility and visibility into action, WHA has lit a flame that continues to spread throughout the country, gaining more advocates each day. Learn more at Women’s Health Advocates and follow on LinkedIn.
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