Gavin Newsom has yet to officially launch his all-but-certain campaign for the White House, but the California governor has already lost Halle Berry’s vote.
“Back in my great state of California, my own governor, Gavin Newsom, vetoed our menopause bill not one but two years in a row,” the Oscar winner told the The New York Times DealBook conference this morning. “But that’s OK, because he’s not going to be governor forever,” Berry continued in a very personal and impassioned speech focused on prejudice against aging women, health issues and their role in society.
Standing before the well-heeled crowd at Lincoln Center and with Newsom himself on the program later Wednesday, Berry put an uncomfortable national spotlight on the smooth-operating governor. “And with the way he has neglected women, half the population, by devaluing us in our 40s, he probably shouldn’t be our next president either,” she said of Newsom’s 2028 candidacy that many Democrats dream of.
Whether or not Newsom will respond to Berry’s remarks remains to be seen. However, even as Hollywood donors are already starting to align with the Golden State Golden Boy, there is no doubt that the term-limited politician left the bipartisan-supported Menopause Care Equity Act, and thus DOA, unsigned in October.
At the time, after a campaign by Berry to get his signature on the law, the ambitious Donald Trump-bashing Newsom said in a letter to lawmakers: “Last year, I vetoed an essentially similar bill, saying it would limit the ability of health plans to engage in practices proven to ensure proper care while limiting unnecessary costs. That is still the case with this bill — despite my call for a better solution. This bill’s expanded coverage mandate, in conjunction with the UM ban, goes too far.
Last month, Berry, founder of Respin Health and a medical lawyer, criticized Newsom for rejecting the bill in a column she wrote for Time. Insisting, based on a third-party analysis, that “the groundbreaking law would have had a negligible impact on insurance premiums,” Berry said “the veto represents a failure of Governor Newsom’s commitment to women.”
“This neglect has real consequences… We can and must take practical, actionable steps to close this gap – and policymakers like Governor Newsom must step up,” Berry noted of the lack of menopause education in medical schools and the medical industry. Today in New York, as in her column, the John Wick The franchise star stressed that tens of millions of women struggle with menopause, that it is not a “disease” and that it affects everyone.
“I need every woman in this country to fight alongside me,” she said near the end of her speech of just over 15 minutes, before host Andrew Ross Sorkin video chatted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking the truth to a lot of power and with Newsom set to speak with Sorkin in about an hour, Berry said: “But the truth is the fight is not just for us women. We need men too. We need all the leaders, every single one of you in this room, this fight needs you. We need you to stay curious. We need you to ask questions. We need you to care even when the subject seems unfamiliar and uncomfortable. We need you to have the conversation anyway, because when women silently struggle with perimenopause and menopause, trying to keep their families, careers, relationships, and communities together, it doesn’t just affect women, it affects the workplace.
“I encourage women to be bold and loud. Women refuse to be diminished during one of the most important seasons of your life, gone are the days of men surviving but in poor health. Why? Because we simply deserve better – we’re half the population.”
“Because at this point in my life, I have nothing more to give,” she concluded to applause.
