01/11/18 01/11/18 [captioning made psible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! pres. trump: i am for massive oil and gas and everything else and a lot of energy. putin can't love that, and hillary, my appointed, was for windmills. amy: president trump tells also feels as is a administration opens more than one billion acres of water in the arctic, pacific, and gulf of mexico to offshore oil and trolling. but there is one exception, the state of florida. the home of trump's mar-a-lago resort and his political ally republican governor rick scott. then we look at the death of anti-police activist erica garner, who died at the age of

27 four month after giving birth to her second child. attributed her failing health to the trauma of racial injustice. racism kills. amy: we will look at a remarkable investigation by propublica on how hospitals are failing black mothers. bottom line is in the united states we have some of the highest rates of maternal death in the industrialized world. this is driven by the high rate of black mothers. like mothers are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth, and this is something we should all be talking about. amy: we will discuss how the fallout of police violence is killing black women like erica garner. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

president donald trump hardened his position on immigration wednesday, a day after he appeared to support a wide-reaching deal on immigration that could grant millions of undocumented people a pathway to citizenship. during a meeting with congressional leaders tuesday, trump repeatedly said he would take the heat for a sweeping immigration deal, which would likely be opposed by much of his far-right-wing anti-immigrant base. president trump also said he wanted a bill to protect the 800,000 young undocumented people, known as dreamers, whose protections he attempted to rescind last year when he canceled daca, the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. but on wednesday, trump reversed course, telling reporters he would reject any immigration deal that doesn't provide funding for a militarized border. pres. trump: i would imagine the people in the room, but democrat and republican, i really believe they're going to come up with the solution to the daca problem, which has been going on for a long time, and maybe be on that immigration as a whole, but

any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all does not work. you could look at other instances, look at what happened in israel. they put up a wall and solved a major problem. we need the wall. we have to have the wall. amy: meanwhile, trump is lashing out at the 9th circuit court of appeals after a federal judge on tuesday temporarily stopped the trump administration from ending the daca program. on wednesday, trump tweeted -- "it just shows everyone how broken and unfair our court system is when the opposing side in a case such as daca always runs to the 9th circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts." trump's remarks came just hours after agents with immigration and customs enforcement, or ice, raided nearly 100 7-eleven stores across the united states, delivering audit notices and arresting 21 people. acting ice director thomas homan said the raids were meant to serve a warning to employers that ice will hold businesses

accountable if they hire undocumented immigrants. president trump refused to say wednesday whether he'd commit to being interviewed by special counsel robert mueller over allegations that his campaign worked with russia to influence the 2016 election. trump was responding to a question about a "new york times" report this week that mueller informed trump's lawyers last month that he will probably seek to interview the president, although mueller has not yet sent a formal request for the interview. fielding questions alongside norwegian prime minister erna solberg, trump said any interview seems unlikely and repeated the phrase "no collusion" eight times in his roughly one-minute answer. meanwhile, donald trump told his cabinet wednesday that he's looking to strengthen u.s. libel laws after a book portraying the president as child-like and incompetent rocketed to the top of the best-seller list. trump made the remarks as the white house continued to rail against the book, "fire and fury" by author michael wolff. pres. trump: our current libel

laws are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent american values or american fairness. so we're going to take a strong look at that. we want fairness. can't say things that are knowingly false and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account. amy: in, russian and syrian warplane's are continuing a massive bombing campaign. video on social media said to be from the attack shows massive explosions and an injured child being pulled from rubble left bleeding from the neck. human rights observers say the risen to 160 in ghouta. shows children among those being pulled from collapsed buildings. in tunisia, police say they arrested 237 people wednesday, while dozens more were left injured as authorities used clubs and tear gas to suppress

anti-austerity protests that spread across the country for a third consecutive night. the demonstrations began after the government announced it was raising taxes and hiking prices for fuel and staple goods. the protests are some of the largest in tunisia since the arab spring uprising in 2010 and 2011. in burma, authorities have formally charged a pair of reuters journalists with violating the official secrets act, despite international condemnation over their arrests. wa lone and kyaw soe oo appeared in court near yangon wednesday. they face up to 14 years if convicted on the colonial-era law. last month, the two were arrested as they investigated the site of a mass grave in rakhine state, where the united nations says burma's government has led a campaign of ethnic cleansing against minority muslim rohingyas. in poland, lawmakers rejected a bill wednesday that would have liberalized the country's abortion laws. the legislation would have removed all restrictions on

abortion within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, while funding sexual education and contraception programs. lawmakers with the ruling conservative law and justice party say they'll now enlist the help of polish catholic clergy as they advance a bill that would prohibit abortions for women carrying fetuses with severe deformities. this is barbara nowacka, a polish lawmaker and member of the "save the women" civic committee. >> it shows the vastness of cruelty of the parliament. they do not want to talk about normality, about women's rights, sexual education that is neglected in poland or about contraception. they want to talk about torturing women. they cynically try to gain support of the clergy. it is tragic news for polish women. amy: poland already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in europe. pregnant women are only allowed to have abortions in cases of rape, incest or extreme danger to a woman's health, or if pre-natal tests show serious damage to a fetus.

in the east china sea, authorities are warning a massive oil tanker that burst into flames on saturday could continue to burn for up to one month as rescue crews scramble to prevent it leaking vast amounts of toxic oil. the panamanian-flagged vessel was carrying 136,000 tons of ultra light, volatile crude oil known as condensate from iran to south korea when it collided with a freight ship, leaving 31 sailors missing and feared dead. it's now listing heavily, with authorities warning it could soon sink under the waves. new york state said wednesday it giants oversil fuel contributions to global warming. came as new york city mayor bill de blasio announced plans to divest some $5 billion in fossil fuel investments on the city's public employee pension funds. in southern california, the death toll from a series of mudslides has risen to 17, as rescue workers scrambled to save residents whose homes were

buried under an avalanche of mud, boulders, and downed trees. the deadly mudslides followed an unprecedented winter fire season, which saw the state's worst wildfire on record rage for days north of los angeles. the fires stripped vast areas of vegetation and opened up hillsides to collapse when heavy rains returned to california this week. climate scientists say greenhouse gas emissions contributed to the wildfires and extreme weather. the trump administration is clearing the way for teenage farm workers to handle dangerous pesticides while on the job. epa chief scott pruitt is considering the change, which would reverse a 2015 rule that requires anyone working with agricultural pesticides to be at least 18 years old. doctors warn many pesticides carry a risk of cancer and can impact the developing brains of children. in missouri, republican governor eric greitens acknowledged on wednesday he had had an

extramarital affair after a woman said the governor took a compromising photograph of her and used it to blackmail her into silence. the woman, whose name has not been revealed, has said part of her affair with greitens was consensual, but that the governor took a photo of her against her will after binding her to a piece of exercise equipment in his bement and blindfolding her, following up with a verbal threat to release the image if she spoke publicly about the affair. governor greitens, who's a former navy seal who's been discussed as a future republican presidential candidate, has denied the blackmail allegation. employees at fox news have confirmed that long-time correspondent james rosen recently left the network due to inappropriate sexual behavior with a number of female colleagues. npr reports rosen's actions included groping a colleague in a cab. when she rejected his advances, rosen reportedly sought to steal away her sources and stories in retaliation. meanwhile, "the washington post"

said wednesday it has suspended reporter joel achenbach for 90 days over what it called inappropriate workplace conduct with female colleagues. "the post" did not elaborate, but achenbach went on to apologize over his actions in a public statement. on capitol hill, california republican congressmember darrell issa said wednesday he will not seek reelection in november. issa is long-time chair of the powerful house oversight committee. he is also congresses' wealthiest member, with an estimated net worth over more $250 million. in nashville, tennessee, a medical resident famous for his political activism is challenging the vanderbilt university medical center after he was suspended for two weeks over what he says was a twitter post critical of white supremacy. in november, dr. eugene gu tweeted a photo of himself taking a knee and raising a fist, with the caption -- "i'm an asian-american doctor and today i #taketheknee to fight white supremacy." dr. gu says he was placed on paid administrative leave after

the mother of one of his patients complained about the photo. dr. gu has over 100,000 twitter followers and has long been outspoken on social issues. he was previously subpoenaed to testify to congress over his research on fetal tissues, and he's also suing president trump for blocking him on twitter. and in peru, the family members of victims of in december, -- family members of victims protests erupted in peru after president pedro pablo kuczynski pardoned former president alberto fujimori, who was imprisoned for crimes including ordering massacres by death squads in the 1990's. this is gisela ortiz perea, sister of luis enrique ortiz, who was one of nine university students and a professor murdered at the la cantuta massacre in 1992. >> i'm a close relative of in the victim. i saw with my own eyes these criminals. i experienced this story, the

horrible death that occurred in my family, the suffering that is engraved in my memory year after year. it is awful to constantly have in my mind the face of the criminals. the most horrible thing is, there are people who continue to call us terrorists. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. bipartisan opposition is growing to president trump's proposal to greatly expand offshore oil and gas drilling. the reversal of the obama-era restrictions would open more than one billion acres of water in the arctic, pacific, atlantic, and gulf of mexico to offshore oil and gas drilling. initially, the interior department moved to allow offshore oil and gas drilling in nearly all of the united state'' coastal waters, but then announced it has dropped plans to open up the waters off the coast of florida following fierce opposition by florida's republican governor rick scott. scott is an ally of president

trump and the state is also home to trump's winter resort at mar-a-lago. but now governors and lawmakers from georgia, south carolina, north carolina, virginia maryland, delaware, new york, , new jersey, california, oregon, washington, and other states are asking why only florida is being exempted. amy: the move comes as the trump administration is also moving forward on plans to open arctic national wildlife refuge to drilling. the republican tax reform bill which trump signed into law last month included a little-discussed provision to trip in the arctic. on during a press conference wednesday with the prime minister of norway, trump boasted about his embrace of fossil fuels. pres. trump: i am for massive oil and gas and everything else, and a lot of energy. putin can't love that. i of from the struggles military . hillary was not for a strong military. and hillary, my opponent, was

for windmills. she was for other types of energy that don't have the same capacities at this moment. amy: we go now to albuquerque, new mexico, where we are joined by subhankar banerjee, a professor of art and ecology at the university of new mexico. professor banerjee is the author of "arctic national wildlife refuge: seasons of life and land," and editor of "arctic voices: resistance at the tipping point." we come back to you professor because, first, we talked to you about the inclusion of opening up the arctic to drilling to satisfy set of armor cast to get her to sign on to the tax bill. she supported it. and now if you can take us from their, what has happened since? tothank you for giving voice arctic oceans. ,o the department of interior plan lastlease

thursday, which is really -- there is no other way to say onn it is an all out attack our oceans across the country and on coastal communities. it is so expansive, as you mentioned, it plans to open up more than one billion acres of federal waters. it is hard to comprehend the scope of this from florida, although florida as you said is pulling back, to alaska from california to maine. it is a massive plan. there are 47 leases that they plan to offer, which is the largest number of offshore history of in the the united states. in terms of acreage, also, like you said, more than a billion acres. it is the largest. and plans to open up the entire

arctic seas of alaska and the chukchi sea come. heelsecision comes on the of opening up the arctic national wildlife refuge, as you mentioned. and that came right after the administration offered on december 6 what they call the ever inlease/sale western arctic alaska. there's an all-out war against conservation and indigenous rights and against small communities across the country. lease,addition to the this massive offshore lease-cell plan, they have two more things that we need to attention to. one is safety regulations that were put in place after

deepwater horizon, and the other is weakening off federal oversight on offshore oil and gas lease plan. i will speak reedley that immediate history of -- immediate history is extremely important. the reason the deepwater horizon ,appened in the gulf of mexico which spilled more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the gulf of mexico, devastating wildlife and coastal communities, was because bp was trying to save cost and was trying to become the top dog in the entire gulf of mexico offshore drilling operations, trying to beat out shell. so in that process, they basically cut costs and did not do proper safety.

so the blowout preventer is what caused the blowout to happen, the largest blowout in u.s. history. subsequent to that, several years -- led to establishing offshore safety clement regulations. so exactly the week before the last week, the trump administration announced weakening of those regulations. so it is extremely important. the other is right before that in early december, the department of interior also killed a study that would have , the bureau ofre ocean management, controls and does oversight of offshore oil and gas leasing programs. so they killed that study. that is also very significant. we may have forgotten by now,

but in 2008, the agency that used to do oversight of all offshore oil and gas operations as well as the leasing program used to be called mineral management service. that agency got caught up in a wide-ranging scandal, including sex and drugs, that was actually reported in "the new york times" in 2008. so following that and following the deepwater horizon, president obama decided to create what he called at the time bureau of ocean energy management regulation and enforcement, which later became bureau of ocean agency and its meant. so in addition to these billion acres of trying to open this up, all of our ocean water and the weakening of 50 equipment regulations, as well as the

weakening of oversight, is an all-out war against our oceans and committed -- coastal need a. nothing less than that. nermeen: professor, i want to go back to what you are talking the arcticer, namely region. this is a region that you have studied for a very long time and the indigenous community's who work there as well as the bio double -- biological diversity that exists there. can you talk about what the in thatf this will be region and why the arctic is so important to biodiversity? >> thank you, nermeen, for bringing that up. the arctic seas still continues to be our only undeveloped seas in north america. the arctic ocean in those seas

harbor incredibly rich diversity of life. it is also considered the least understood and one of the most ecological complex seas on earth. just as an example, in the arctic seas -- i've seen about three species of whales, but you can actually see eight different species of whales, three of which are arctic and five come from warmer waters like the coast of mexico where they are giving birth and then go up to the arctic. there are gray whales, blue whales, beluga whales, and bull held wells and many others. and in the arctic communities, coastal communities, the indigenous people, call themselves people of the whales and the seas our garden. so opening those up for many of the community's can other than the ones -- it is outright

violation of their human rights. so we are talking about seas we don't even understand very well, and indigenous people depend on it. one thing published late last year, a massive report called of the seas.las it is an amazing report. the trump administration was to open up all of that. it is not just the arctic seas, in there are 19 leases land the entire alaskan water. amy: let's talk about what just happened. this remarkable meeting where the interior secretary, ryan zinke, reportedly flew down to florida to me with governor rick scott. afterwards announced that florida would be taken off the map for opening up to offshore drilling because it would

threaten tourism and the economy. so governors across the united states are basically saying, #metoo. outrage foressed florida to be granted the exemption. republican governor rick scott, also of mar-a-lago. this is kate brown speaking to cnn's anderson cooper. >> my question is, why is this ok for florida and not for oregon? what universe is this ok? >> is this about electoral policy? >> absolutely. what can i think otherwise? is it about the governor wanting to run for the u.s. senate or is it about president trump wanting to protect mar-a-lago? that't know the answer to because secretary zinke he has not returned our call. there is absolutely no input from governors, coastal governors.

we had no clue this was coming and we had no opportunity to express our outrage. we are outraged. this is absolutely unacceptable. there has been no drilling off the pacific coast for three decades. amy: said that is oregon democratic governor kate brown. today, roy cooper from north carolina, just went ballistic. he said we just into the ocean. he said many of our towns and cities have already said they do not want this offshore drilling. that the bp oil spill worked theirannual --dwarfed annual budget. subhankar banerjee, is this actually an opening right now? because of the outcry of not only democratic governors, like brown and cooper, you're talking about the governors of new hampshire, massachusetts, maryland, south carolina, georgia are enraged.

so let me point that out. as you said, it is kind of a # metoo movement. what they're doing is "the washington post" published an article late last night in which michael brennan, the director of the sierra club, pointed out something quite important that what the department of interior is doing in regard to the florida decision, they're not actually following the procedure , proper procedure. there is something called a procedural act. they are not even following that. ad hoc arbitrary process. what does this mean now? is he going to release another draft plan? is he going to give the strikeout florida land which by hand? and now there is already an outrage across the country from all governors come all of these coastal governors -- i

think except a couple of them that support. but let me highlight something else they are doing. not only are they not following proper procedure, but, in my opinion and this is not been yet reported by the media -- in my opinion, they are setting up a process that will discourage and suppress public input. there are two components to this. so what happens is, with this massive offshore plan, the department of interior by law, by the national environmental policy act, have to hold public hearings across the country. that process, the way they are undermining that process is -- the way it used to happen, the public would gather in a big auditorium somewhere. there would be federal officials

sitting behind a table. all of us would go in there and get our testimonies in an open mic, and that would be recorded. that is the normal process. i have done this numerous times. i am sure you both have covered such public hearings across the country. now they are getting rid of that in saying something in their words. you can look it up on their website. they are calling it open house-style. so there will be nothing of what used to happen in the past. the public can still going in -- and still go in. there will be no formal recording or anything. there will be a small video playing on a continuous loop that the public can look at, asked some questions, maybe put in the comments. what does that do? it is a form of discouraging the public to engage in a proper

public hearing. so they're getting rid of the idea of public hearing. there is really not a public hearing. ,he second component of that how they are suppressing the their input process is only going to hold this kind of public meeting in one location , thech of the 23 states state capital. let's say you are coastal community in california or any of the states. the public meeting will take place in sacramento, but you are hundreds of miles away. or let's say in alaska. the meeting will take place in anchorage. the indigenous people who are living literally thousands of miles from it, how are they going to come to this meeting in such a short notice? two things have to happen. i would encourage senators and governors across the country to

slow down this process and understand what they are doing with regard to the public participation. there are undermining the public participation. nermeen: i also want to ask you, professor, about the threats faced by environmental scientists under the trump administration. in august, democracy now! interviewed joel clement, a senior official at the interior department, who focused on the dangers climate change poses to alaska native communities in the arctic. we spoke with him after he was transferred to an unrelated job within the interior department where he was tasked with collecting royalty checks from oil and gas companies. >> it has been a long pattern since the administration took over a suppressing science, muscling -- sign lighting experts. the biggest concern is it has huge consequences for americans, in my case, alaska natives.

the permafrost is melting. there exposed to the storms now that the sea ice has receded. that will not be only alaska natives for long. amy: he has since resigned. professor, can you talk about the threats faced by environmental scientists under the trump administration? bringing thisor up. this is not only the trump administration, but previous a ministrations have done this. if there is any scientist working on breaking work on arctic offshore or offshore at large that somehow gets entangled with oil and gas issues, they are being silenced and punished. ofjoel clement is the latest this. i will give you two more examples. joel clement's work is backbreaking because the coa

an extreme issue for indigenous communities all across arctic alaska -- and he was trying to highlight that. so as we are speaking right now, the department of interior is actually hosting what they call a symposium to do a massive overhaul or reorganization of their senior staff members. joel clement got caught up in that, but he is extremely courageous so he went and blew the whistle. democracy now! cover it. let me give you a couple of more examples. biologistent was a who studied poehler bear biology. the first scientist to bring attention to the plight of older bears from climate change. .is research was published

the trump administration will try to open up to oil drilling. he did the research in 2004 when polar bears were drowning in the sea because of melting sea ice. in 2006, whichd actually inspired the animation in al gore's film "inconvenient and brought worldwide attention to the plight of polar bears from climate change. fast-forward, the bush administration then went after studies.onet and his they demoted him and did all sorts of things to his funding and so on and so forth. at the obama administration went one step farther. they were also pushing for oil tookas development in the gnc. the obama administration department of interior actually put charles monet under house arrest in 2012 for six weeks,

after which he was released withouany charges being leveled against him. , professorxample richard steiner of the university of alaska fairbanks, who spoke out against oil and gas issues in the bering sea. university of alaska took away all of his federal funding. democracy now! did the coverage. amy, you spoke with rick steiner also. lawsuitsted and filed a and then resigned. to draw attention to all of these issues, i am convening a major conference called the last university of new mexico that will take place february 21-23 to bring attention to this form of silencing, punishing,

marginalization of indigenous people all across the arctic. amy: finally -- like >> doing everything to undermine the public process, their science -- silencing communities. we needed all out antiwar movement now. amy: professor, we just have a few seconds, but i wanted you to comment on this latest news, far from you here in new york city, mayor de blasio and the city announcing that the city will sue five fossil fuel giants over their contributions to global warming. the suit targeting vp, chevron, exxon mobil, royal dutch shell, conoco, as mayor de blasio announced plans to divest some $5 billion in fossil fuel investments from the city's public employee pension fund, mckibben tol tweet --

we just have 10 seconds. but as you see all of this happening, this movement that you're talking about, do you take hope in this? >> there is hope in this. we're deeply grateful to the mayor of new york city for taking the lead. believe it or not, the small community exley filed a lawsuit against 23 fossil fuel companies that was thrown out in court, but very famous in history. the mayor of new york city highlighting this is bringing in, extremely important, and what we just saw, such extreme .limate change the extreme wildfires in california in december. now the mudslides taking place. we need to transition away from

fossil fuels, not enmeshed ourselves in projects that will block a sin for fossil fuel developed -- luck as in poor fossil field development. amy: subhankar banerjee, professor of art and ecology at the university of new mexico, speaking to us from the university from new mexico public television. professor banerjee is author of "arctic national wildlife refuge: seasons of life and land," and editor of "arctic voices: resistance at the tipping point." an exhibition of his arctic work, "long environmentalism in the near north" is on display at the university of new mexico art museum through march 3, 2018. when we come back, we look at the death of erica garner, the remarkable 27 year old mother and anti-police brutality activist. she died just a few months after giving birth to her second child, little eric. we will talk about studies that look at black women after they get birth. stay with us.

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this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: in harlem, new york, hundreds of people attended the funeral of anti-police brutality activist erica garner, who died at the age of 27 on december 30 after an asthma-induced heart attack, four months after giving birth to her second child. erica's father, eric garner, was killed when police officers in staten island wrestled him to the ground, pinned him down and applied a fatal chokehold in 2014. outside the funeral, shannon jones of the anti-police brutality organization "why accountability" read from placards about erica's death. 30, 2017, erica died after suffering a heart attack. erica attributed her failing health to the trauma of racial

injustice. a new study of mothers in new york city found that black likely are 12 times more mothers.an white and that racism kills. and that racism kills. fact five. 2017, erica gave , naming him eric after her father. hard, but you's have to keep going no matter how long it takes.

we deserve justice no matter how long it takes. we deserve justice no matter how long it takes. !e deserve justice this is not an isolated incident. amy: shannon jones of the anti-police brutality organization "why accountability" chanting outside the funeral of erica garner, who died just four months after giving birth to her second child, named for her father, eric garner. we turn to a new propublica investigation that suggests erica garner's post-partum death might be part of a wider national problem in which hospitals are failing african-american mothers, leading to disproportionally high maternal mortality rates. every year in the u.s., between 700 and 900 women die from

causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. for every woman who dies, dozens more experience severe and sometimes life-threatening complications annually. here in new york city, black mothers are 12 times more likely to die than white mothers. that staggering statistic comes from this new investigation by propublica. one new propublica article titled "how hospitals are failing black mothers" reveals that women who deliver at hospitals that disproportionately serve african-american mothers are at a higher risk of danger. the article notes -- "while part of the disparity can be attributed to factors like poverty and inadequate access to health care, there is growing evidence that points to the quality of care at hospitals where a disproportionate number of black women deliver, which are often in neighborhoods disadvantaged by segregation." well, for more, we're joined now by annie waldman, a reporter at propublica who wrote the article, "how hospitals are failing black mothers." the piece is part of a larger year-long propublica investigation called "lost mothers: maternal care and preventable deaths." annie waldman, welcome to democracy now!

we just heard shannon saying "this is not an isolated incident." , mean, you have eric garner his last words "i can't breathe" 11 times, and then his daughter, only a few years later, dying of an asthma induced heart attack as she could not breathe, either. explain what we think overall this story may example if i. >> first, thank you for having me. secondly, when i heard the news of erica garner's death, it was horrifying. it is incredible -- a public -- at propublica, we're speaking to families whose mother has died in childbirth. in these conversations, the most important thing that seems to come up with african-american women are white women or women of other races is that it is an

injustice because in the united states, we have some of the highest rates of maternal death across the board. most of this is driven by the deaths of black mothers. as we heard in what shannon was saying earlier, in new york city alone, women are -- black women are 12 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. this is an injustice and one that can be stopped. nermeen: in the propublica investigation, there are some extremely come in addition to what you cited, distressed thing decisions that a black woman is 22% more likely to die from heart disease than white women, 71% of paris from cervical cancer, but 243% more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes. the investigation also cites the world health organization saying that black expectant and new mothers in the u.s. die at about the same rate as women in andtries such as mexico

uzbekistan. >> we were trying to understand, why is this the case? persist?hese rates even know the rest of the world, the rates of maternal death have gone down over the past decade and in the united states, the rates of death in childbirth have gone up. numbers, it is the number of deaths in the black community which are going up, not just the white community. we start to ask these questions, researchers have often said it is poverty, social economic factors, access to health care, fragmentation of health care. but what we wanted to know is, what can hospitals do? does this disparity persists at the hospital level? could this be something the doctors have some influence on? could this be something where it is an unconscious bias in our health care system? amy: what did you find?

>> that is deftly the case. if you look at hospitals that disproportionally serve communities of color, the number of earth complications are exceptionally higher. not just hemorrhage, which many people feel are incredibly preventable. but when you look at complications such as hypertension disorder, so blood pressure issues, or blood clots, which is something that i don't know if you read the "vogue" interview with serena williams yesterday, but she spoke about her tragic birth complication. amy: the tennis star. >> even she experienced for its complications at the hands of her doctor. she has a history of blood clots . i think she had a blood clot a couple of years ago that took her off the courts for a year. this is something the doctor should've been aware of. amy: she self diagnosed. >> and should women have to go into a hospital and self diagnose? if you read the story closely, she asked the nurse in order to get some kind of treatment, in ther to get a ctscan and

nurse said, oh, it is the pain medication which might be confusing you. what does this make us feel as women? shown thatudies have pain management is something -- a huge problem in communities of color. doctors frequently do not give the right pain medication to black women in blue sometimes it might be, like what happened to serena williams, somewhat in their head or they might be confused. amy: you talk about the stories of tunisia. ,> how we started with this looking at hospitals, was with the data. we wanted to find the hospitals that had the highest rates of birth complications. what we did was look at three states millions of births, so much data that it would overwhelm you. what we wanted were the human stories. we worked with an amazing team that reached out asking for stories. we were embassy -- investigating

a hospital to have one of the highest rates of maternal heart in new york state and the family reached out and said, our mother died there. amy: what hospital? suny downstate in brooklyn. one of the neighborhoods near their the wanted 20 women have a birth complication when they go into a hot little. when you think of these embers, it is not just a rare occurrence. this is an everyday thing for these communities. one of the women that we focused flerimond, she was an had no idea she was going to die when she walked into the hospital. she had had five previous pregnancies come all of them went fine. she was pregnant with twins. she did not know she was at high risk for a blood clot like serena williams experience. 36 hours after her sister in

section, she died. what was shocking, even though this is incredibly devastating just on its own, while we were investigating this hospital, another woman passed away, tanesia walker. an american airlines flight attendant. she had a kid before. she was financially stable. should a criminal justice degree from john jay university in new york city. she had her life an in front of her. when she walked in the hospital, she annoyed it within 24 hours she would die. believes it might've been a blacklight, the same as the woman who died at the same hospital just months before. this brings up so many questions of, what are hospitals doing to investigate the deaths that occur on their own grounds? what are doctors doing in order to change the protocols once a death happens echo what is the conversation that happens?

i asked the hospital all of these questions and importantly, they did not answer them. i think it is for the public to put pressure. amy: what role does insurance play and lack of it? >> insurance plays a huge role. it is not just the hospitals. it goes down to when a child is born and born into this society and whether they have health care and then they grow up and do them good education? this is not just about the segregation of our health care system. this is about the segregation of society from education to housing and onward. amy: we want to thank you for being with us. it was written in "the new york post," the world's biggest education company pearson is come under fire for a page in one of the nursing textbooks that has racist area taps about minorities, one thing "likes offer higher pain intensity than other cultures."

>> yes. as you will see, there's unconscious bias and buys and everything that we read. it is time for people to start standing up and questioning what is happening. we want to question you further about this and post it online at democracynow.org. for now, we're going to a break and then look at another aspect of the life of erica garner that asmany women experience now they deal with the stress of losing loved ones to police brutality. this is democracy now! presswaldman to annieing waldman's piece "how hospitals are failing black mothers." ♪ [music break]

amy: in a some own, great singer , will be inducted into the rock 'n roll hall of fame on april 14. christen smith this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to the larger health impacts that police violence and trauma has on families, communities and black women in particular, who often suffer the stress of

gendered racism. as erica garner was eulogized by the reverend al sharpton on tuesday, he talked about erica's unflinching determination to get justice for her father. sharpton said, while they say "she died of a heart attack, no, her heart was attacked that day," referring to july 27, 2014, the day police killed her father. erica spoke often about the toll that her fight for justice took on her. this is erica speaking on democracy now! in 2016. >> when you deal with grief, you talk about grief and you talk about family and how regular families deal with it, families have problems. butble with coping with it, it makes us so different because now we are part of this national scale. i still have an accepted my father is gone. dad,though i talk about my but i talked about him as a case study. like i have been studying his case. for the latest updates you can go to my website or twitter.

you can see i am constantly reading articles and doing the research on my dad's case, but i'm not taking care of me. amy: well, our next guest has been studying the effects of stress caused by police violence and trauma on black women. christen smith is an associate professor of african and african diaspora studies & anthropology at the university of texas at austin. her recent article for the conversation is titled, "the fallout of police violence is killing black women like erica garner." smith is also the author of "afro-paradise: blackness, violence and performance in brazil." professor smith, welcome to democracy now! deathbout erica garner's and the stress that she did it knowledge and the horse she faced wrought upon her, do not ask to become an activist, but she spent the last three years of her life fighting for justice in the killing of her father, police chokehold death of her father eric garner. they givelet me say

of interpenetration to come and speak about this today. when i heard that erica garner had had a heart attack, i was devastated. i was devastated primarily because i thought to myself, oh, my goodness, this is happening again. i have seen this happen so many times before. basically, when the police killed someone, we only think about the impact that debt has in the moment. we think about the bullets and the baton blows and the tasting and the beating, but we don't think about the lingering effects. for me, police violence is like a nuclear bomb. the initial blast is only a fraction of what is here to come. in the aftermath of a nuclear bomb, we know we have fallout. the trauma of police violence is like fallout, and it kills you slowly like the cancer that kills you because of fallout. when i listen to erica garner's

stories in which she talks about her trauma -- she talked about it a lot in many interviews. in one of her last interviews, she talked about the fact this was beating her down and having an effect on her health. she talked about the fact, look 's mother andwder what the stress did for her. venida browder passed away in october 2016, 16 months after her son kalief committed suicide. amy: suicide after he was held at rikers island for three years . he never been tried. eventually something released. was beaten in jail and ultimately committed suicide. >> absolutely. and that devastating case, when erica spoke about the devastating case, she knew there was something going on with her that was resonating with what happened to venida browder.

and that is devastating. the trauma, literally, weighing down on her. she was aware of it. i think one of the aspects that makes her death so very tragic, in addition to all of these other things, is the fact that she knew the stress was really taking a toll on her health. she told us multiple times before she passed away, look, this is hurting me. i am hurting. to me that says this is a tremendous problem that we need to start to look at. black women are dying in the them in the police killings. death toll. we are not thinking about them as the victims of police violence, and we must. as far as i'm concerned, the garner family lost two people to police violence. they lost eric garner and erica garner. nermeen: could you say quickly what kinds of resources do you think should be made available to family -- families whose family members have been

subjected to police violence? >> first of all, i think most of these families are not -- do not have access to the proper care. talked toesearch, i families who have lost a family member to police violence. in particular, i have talked to the sister of larry jackson jr. in austin, texas -- larry jackson was killed by police officers in july 2014. after that, i had long conversations with her. i think what we need to do is offer therapy and it needs to be free. we also need to be a little do the research that we need in order to know the extent of this problem. we don't have sufficient data on a national scale to be up to know what is going on. in order to address this, the families need free therap the supporty, support from society in a way that they're not going to have -- amy: we will post the rest of

this conversation online at democracynow.org. democracynow.org.

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