California governor signs $90M ’emergency’ funding bill for Planned Parenthood, abortion providers

A press conference to mark the signing of a bill that grants $90 million in “emergency” funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers was nearly derailed after California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife linked the media with a “horrific war on women.”

The incident occurred during the signing of Senate Bill 106, which was introduced by state Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion services provider. Following the passage of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” Planned Parenthood warned it would have no choice but to close as many as a third of its 600 facilities across the United States.

In response, Newsom signed SB 106 to provide $90 million in grants from the state’s general fund to Planned Parenthood. The governor is widely considered to be the Democratic front-runner for the White House in 2028. 

The funding marks a sharp increase from the $60 million initially proposed by Newsom in January and will supplement another $140 million passed by California lawmakers in October.

“California is taking steps to ensure people don’t lose access to the range of services provided by Planned Parenthood,” said Newsom in a media statement. “As the Trump administration’s Big Ugly Bill punishes women and community health providers, California continues to stand in support of women’s access to essential health services and reproductive freedom.”

The vast majority — upwards of 80% — of the approximately 1.3 million patient visits provided annually by California’s Planned Parenthood health centers are reimbursed by Medi-Cal, according to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ office.

In a video that quickly went viral on social media, California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom chastised the media for asking questions unrelated to the Planned Parenthood announcement.

As attendees around the podium began chanting “Protect women, Planned Parenthood,” Siebel Newsom conversed briefly with the governor before taking the mic. “We just find it incredulous that we have Planned Parenthood here, and women are 51 percent of the population, and the majority of the questions, all of these questions, have really been about other issues,” she said as Newsom looked on. “It’s just fascinating.”

Standing behind a placard that read “Stopping Trump’s War on Women,” Siebel Newsom, a self-styled “influential thought leader on gender equality,” went on to accuse the media of ignoring what she described as a “horrific war on women.” 

“You have this incredible women’s caucus and all these allies, and you’re not asking about it. And this happens over and over and over and over again,” she said. “You wonder why we have such a horrific war on women in this country, and that these guys are getting away with it, because you don’t seem to care. So I just offer that with love.”

Siebel Newsom has been a longtime vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood: in 2023, she headlined a Planned Parenthood “My Body, My Voice” event, where she advocated on behalf of the group’s efforts to “ensure widespread access to reproductive services and to transform and expand fearful, intolerant hearts and minds.”

In response to the signing of SB 106, Christian conservative group California Family Council (CFC) slammed the bill as a “bailout for Planned Parenthood” and warned about the misuse of taxpayer funds at a time of high housing costs, rising gas prices, and homelessness throughout the state.  

“When a society rejects God and the inherent value of human life, this is where it leads: calling the destruction of children ‘care’ and calling massive abortion subsidies ‘compassion,’” said CFC Vice President Greg Burt. “These bills reveal just how dark our moral vision becomes when we abandon the truth about human dignity.”