Wait. Did Gov. Newsom really cave to Halle Berry’s menopause demands? | Opinion
Can Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reputation survive a very public shredding by an Oscar-winning actress?
It depends on how he plays it from here on out.
Here’s the backstory: Last week, A-lister actress and women’s health advocate Halle Berry spoke at a prestigious event sponsored by the New York Times, where she stole the show with her evisceration of Newsom:
“My very own governor, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed our menopause bill, not one but two years in a row. But that’s OK. He’s not going to be governor forever,” she said. “And with the way he’s overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us in midlife, he probably should not be our next president either, just saying.”
Uh-oh.
Prioritizing insurance companies over women’s health is not a good look for a Democrat who wants to be president. (Republicans, on the other hand seem to get away with treating women any way they choose.) Yet Newsom — who also was a speaker at the NYT event — may have saved himself some grief by appearing to walk back the veto in a video interview with TMZ.
The governor told TMZ that Berry was unaware that a fix was already in the works for AB 432, the bill to expand access to menopause treatments.
“I’ve included it in the budget next year,” he said. “She (Berry) didn’t know that. We’re reconciling that. ... We’re in the process of fixing it.”
Sounds awfully convenient though, right?
His statement matches information included in the governor’s veto message released in October, which indicated that Newsom planned to ask Health and Human Services to “identify additional policy changes or investments ... for consideration as part of next year’s budget process.”
That means we can expect to see expanded menopause care in the state budget to be released on Jan. 10, but there’s no telling what it will include.
The bill’s author, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, told Politico that she’s heard nothing from Newsom. Berry had not heard from the governor either, according to Politico.
Let’s hope the “fix” is not just some watered-down version of the vetoed bill, crafted to help the governor save face.
How Halle Berry became an advocate for menopause care
Meanwhile, TMZ, being TMZ, gave Halle the win with this ALL CAPS headline: “HALLE SPED UP MENOPAUSE BILL NEWS ... Action Was Already in Process!!!”
We may never know whether Berry did indeed speed up the process, but if nothing else, this is looking like one of those times when a celebrity nudged us into paying attention to a topic that, for too many years, was not receiving the attention it deserves.
Berry is trying to change that — a crusade she began after she was misdiagnosed with herpes when she was actually experiencing symptoms of menopause.
“My doctor didn’t know what was happening ...” she told the NYT audience. “Can you imagine if men had a medical condition that disrupted their sleep, brain function and sex life, we’d be declaring that a health crisis on par with COVID and the whole world would shut down until they figured that s--- out.”
Newsom blamed lawmakers for giving him bill that lacked balance
Speaking of men, why did Newsom deny the menopause bill in the first place? Shouldn’t he have rushed to sign it to cement his feminist credentials?
In his veto message, he blamed lawmakers.
“The Legislature has twice now sent me a bill that does not strike the important and achievable balance between expanding access to this essential treatment and the affordability of care,” he wrote.
He’s got a point there. Nobody wants their insurance bills to go up. Except, the California Health Benefits Review Program estimated that premiums would increase by just 0.05% due to the legislation. That’s not a huge financial burden.
Also, advocates point out that menopause care can offset problems later in life that are far more costly to treat. For example, menopause often leads to rapid bone loss, and treating that early can help avoid hip fractures and other major medical problems down the road.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Unfortunately, women don’t always have ready access to the best treatments. While many drugs for menopause symptoms already are covered by insurance, sometimes patients have to jump through hoops to get them due to preauthorization requirements and other restrictions.
AB 432 attempted to ease that by requiring at least one FDA-approved drug in every menopause treatment category — such as drugs for women at high risk for developing hormone-sensitive cancers — to be exempt from restrictions.
It also required doctors to take continuing education courses on menopause if women make up at least 25% of their caseloads.
That all sounds not only reasonable, but also humane. Newsom should ensure that there is adequate funding in the budget to close the gaps in menopause care.
He also might want to give Halle Berry a call.
This story was originally published December 9, 2025 at 3:05 PM.
