>> good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on pbs news weekend, count down to the midterms. my report from georgia where two closely contested races could help decide control of the u.s. senate and the direction of the country. >> i'm waiting to see how things shake around in a few days. and make a decision then. >> maternity care deserts. we look at the decreasing availability of obstetric and birthing providers and its impact on the health of women and infants. and a look at the care crisis affecting children. what's behind the increasing closures of pediatric units around the country. those stories and theays headlines on tonight's pbs news weekend.

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this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and viewers like you. >> good evening. it's with you. with the midterm elections just tonight we begin in georgia were democratic senator raphael warnock and republican herschel walker met in their first and likely only debate last night. the candidates clashed on abortion amid allegations that walker who opposes abortion paid for a woman to have one years ago. walker denied the accusations. early voting in georgia begins on monday and we will have a more in-depth look at the georgia midterm leases -- races later in the program. a coal mine explosion in turkey has killed at least 41 people. rescuers worked through the night to reach survivors as family and friends waited for news of loved ones.

one 110 people were working in the mine on friday when the explosion occurred. 11 were injured while 58 managed to get out on their own or were rescued unharmed. initial reports indicate the explosion was likely caused by flammable gases found in coal mines. russia's defense ministry says attackers fired on a group of volunteer soldiers at a training ground near the ukrainian border before being killed themselves. at least 11 are dead and more than a dozen wounded. that's unfolding as president vladimir putin says russia should finish its massive mobilization of reservists in two weeks. putin also said that russia has no plans for now. for more massive airstrikes like the ones that killed thousands this past week. overnight the u.s. announced it will send an additional 25 million dollars in military aid to ukraine. a massive blaze has erupted at

an iranian prison known for keeping political prisoners and antigovernment protesters. online video shows large plumes of smokelouding the skies over tehran. it's unclear what prompted the fire. protests across iran into their fifth week. hundreds of protesters have been killed since the antigovernment demonstrations started. for the first time ever, the state of alaska says it needs to cancel snow crab fishing season due to plummeting populations. the crabbing industry is a major contributor to t state's economy and the pause in production could threaten the livelihoods of many alaskan fishermen. alaska is the fastest warming state in the country and is losing billions of tons of ice each year. critical for crabs that need cold water to survive. still come on pbs news weekend, a new report highlights rising pregnancy-related deaths in the nation's maternity care

deserts. and why hospitals are cutting pediatric health services, too. >> this is pbs news weekend from wta studios in washington. home of the pbs newshour, weeknights on pbs. >> in 2020, the state of georgia flipped blue for president biden unsecured democratic control of the u.s. senate by electing senators jon ossoff and raphael warnock. but in one of the countries most closely divided states were president biden beat donald trump fewer than 12,000 votes, the question is will georgia state blue come november? >> targeted outreach like this to georgians of color helped secure president biden's historic 2020 victory. the democrats first since bill clinton's narrow win here in 1992. this group works for the new

georgia project, a nonprofit founded almost a decade ago by stacey abrams. >> just in 2020 two alone, our goal is to register 40,000 folks and i believe we are only 3500 people side. you take what we are doing coupled with the progressive ecosystem writ large, we feel like we are going to move the needle. >> they are hoping theeedle moves in a race that will be critical in deciding control of the u.s. senate. senator rev. raphael warnock is seeking his first full term after a victory in the 2020 special election made him georgia's first black u.s. senator. he is now facing republican herschel walker, a formal football player -- former football player known for winning the heismanrophy at the university of georgia. >> he really is a football ro to many in the state.

>> and greg blumstein says support for walker is high despite multiple scandals plaguing his campaign. >> there's been damaging reports about his history of violence, lies about his record, his policy stance blunders. and none of them have been campaign killers. >> the daily beast reported that walker had paid for an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion despite his pro-life policy stance. walker denied the claims. >> i said that was a lie and i'm not backing down. we have people that will say anything for the seat but i'm not going to back down. >> senator warnock has focused on expanding his base of support by appealing to moderate republicans. >> people are taking pause and thinking about it. >> martha zoller says

controversies may lead some conservatives to opt out of voting in the senate race altogether. >> if you want seone that's going to vote with president biden, vote for raphael warnock. if you want someone that's going to vote republican, vote for herschel walker. >> a former republican says while he was a fan of walker at the football player, he sent a fan of walker the politician. >> i get so frustrated. like, dude, you are on tv. i feel uncomfortable that he is actually 10 down some of the things we have tilt up for folks that look more like him. and that bothers me. >> rosalyn miller who says protecting abortion and voting rights are some of her top priorities this cycle is also turned off by walker's controversies. >> i do not care for mr. walker. i didn't like him when he was playing football.

but now all of these things that i'm hearing about him, i really don't like him. i'm not voting for him. >> kindergarten teacher carol bratton says she will vote for him despite reservations. >> i look at what warnock has been and there needs to changed. the only way to have change is to have somebody new. >> current republican governor brian kemp is ahead of democrats stacey abrams in the polls. it's their second match after camp narrowly beat abrams in 2018. greg steen says this year is different. >> she is now running against a governor who has a record. that's made it really hard. >> that record now includes signing a long getting abortions in geoia after fetal heart is detected and signing the law allowing gun owners to conceal

without a permit. on the economy, kemp touts his decision to ease covid-19 restrictions early in the pandemic. stacey abrams condemned his time as governor. >> what do you plan to do to overcome the pulling margin between you and governor kemp? >> i am going everywhere and talking to everyone. our second responsibility is to remind people of what has happened in the first four years -- in the last four years. 38,000 people died of covid. he risked our lives to be first. he did not put in place any protections for our workers, he did not put in place in place any investment for our people and he did not put in place any plans for our future. you do not derve to be rehired when you did such a substandard job the first time. >> governor kemp's standing has

led to a new dynamic emerging here. prospect of split ticket voting. >> independent voters and even some republican voters who have questions about herschel walker as a candidate, they are sold on brian kemp but they are thinking about voting for camp and may raphael warnock for the senate. >> there is always this group of suburban women. in 96 they vted for clinton and into 1004 they voted for bush and in 2016 they voted for trump and then they voted for biden. they voted for obama also. they go back and forth. >> he showed me around his hindu temple. it's one of the largest in the u.s.. >> we have a thriving asian community of people from india, south korea, vietnam.

philippines. a lot of different places. >> while asian-american voters turned out in force for biden in 2020, two years later amid a worsening economic picture, republicans are gaining ground am a key voting block. >> which way are you leaning? >> i really appreciate the fact that governor kemp opened up the state early on. that kind of helped us get back on the feed faster. >> he sn't decided who he will support to represent georgia in the senate. >> i'm waiting to see how things shake around in a few days. >> with control of the u.s. senate and the balance, it will be up to undecided voters to determine if he can pull off a repeat on election day.

>> the number of women dying of pregnancy-related causes is on the rise with nearly 900 deaths were awarded in 20. two thirds of those deaths were determined to be preventable according to a new report from the march of dimes. the report found that as outcomes get worse, so his access to highuality maternity care. >> this new report found 36% of u.s. counties are maternity care deserts. places wh no ob/gyn doctors, hospitals providing obstetric care, birth centers or certified nurse midwives. those counties are also home to almost 150,000 babies. these figures have worsened with the number omaternity care

deserts increasing by 2%. two out of three materty care deserts are rural counties. only 7% of obstetric providers serve royal -- rural communities. discrepancies also follow along racial lines. more than a quarter of native american babies and one in six black babies were born in areas of limited or no maternity care. to help us understand why this problem is getting worse, i'm joined by an assistant professor at the university of south carolina arnold school of public health and an expert in rural health and disparities in care. if i am an expectant mother in a maternity care desert, what does that mean for my care? >> that means there is a stress associated with travel burdens, the psychosocial burdens that we don't know about the uncertainties facing this birthing families.

they may have to travel more than 30 minutes or even more than one hour away to reach one obstetric provider for any kind of perinatal care. >> that puts a lot of burden on her just as she is doing her checkups throughout the course of her pregnancy. i also mentioned that the maternity care deserts have increased by 2% in the last two years. why is this problem getting worse? >> it's sad. a lot of rural hospitals and small hospitals just can't afford operating obstetric units because services are costly to maintain. because they have to have anesthesiologists on call 20 47.

>> why is it that the racial disparities in maternity care continue to be so stark? >> in our research we found that rural hospitals are much more likely to close their obstetric units when they are located in communities that have higher proportion of african-american reproductive aged women and this is kind of associated with heavy reliance of medicaid insurance. we know medicaid paid about half of an inch by the insurance and on top of this, there are different times of -- kinds of premiums that add to the financial distress facing rural and small hospitals to maintain this costly and unprofitable obstetric services. >> the study didn't really look

at reproductive care, but there is a body of data that shows that states that restrict access to abortion and other types of care also tend to provide fewer services. >> a lot of communities that really have lack of infrastructures of all kinds. providers and patients will gravitate to other states that have less restrictions and this will worsen the shortage facing a lot of states. they have a higher proportion of communities with maternity care deserts. >> you have spent a lot of time thinking about how to solve these problems. what do you see as the major solutions? >> my team has been thinking about how to resolve this. we started thinkin about we have to learn the resources in

each community. communities are very different. each community has different resources. for example, telehealth and telemedicine represent promising opportunities to really address this kind of gap. then a lot of communities, median households don't really have smart phones, tablets or even computers to be amenable to telehealth services. so in this case we are really targeting dierent communities with different interventions. for example, for communities that have a risk of high mortality, -- each community should have interventions --

tailored interventions. that's what the federal and state efforts have been highlighting and emphasizing. >> thank you for your time. >> thank you for having me. >> we are going to shift our focus to another crisis of care. this one involving children. brought to our attention by reporting this past week by the new york times. a nationwide wave of hospitals closing thers of their pediatric units. the covid-19 pandemic, loss of staff and more profitable adult patients are just a few of the key factors. but this problem is decades in the making. 2008 to 2018 there was a 20%

decline in hospitals with inpatient pediatric care units, leaving many families to travel far to care for their children. joining us is dr. scott krugman. he is professor of pediatrics at georgetown universitschool of medicine. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. what is driving the pediatric -- >> what is driving the pediatric unit closures and how widespread of an issue is this? >> the biggest one really is money. our health care system unfortunately is set up for profit and most hospitals try to make enough money to keep investing and survive, so hospitals are prioritizing things that make money witches adult services like surgeries and oncogy and orthopedics.

when you have something that costs a lot and there is low-volume, there's very little incentive to keep it going. >> why is it so critical to have doctors trained in pediatric care and not just to have experienced generalists who can also provide care for children? >> a lot of us go into pediatrics because we really like taking care of kids and not adults. and people who go into peatrics like to take care of adults and not kids. they are different physiology's and sease conditions. when kids are taken care of by nurses and doctors and staff trained to be pediatric friendly and skilled, they do a much better job. a general hospital can do a good job to stabilize kids, those with really significant illnesses and chronic conditions often need pediatric specialists and we train three to six years, sometimes more to be able to do

these things. >> how does the loss of pediatric beds and hospitals affect cldren directly? >> the biggest things we are seeing across the country is kids having to wait or travel long distances to get definitive care. by definitive care that means you have a condition that gets treated in the child gets discharged and is better. what's happening now is in rural areas they have to travel very long distances to children hospitals and even in urban areas, many community hospitals in the suburbs have been shut down. they still might have significant wait times and have to sit in a general er for hours and hours waiting for transport to that children's hospital and that the late in care has risk. it has the potential of the child getting worse or maybe

potential outcome like they didn't make it when they should have. >> why doesn't that factor into the decision-making of these hospitals when they decide to close these pediatric units? >> does for some and you have to give a lot of hospitals credit that despite the challenges of finding staff and keeping staff trained. more and more hospitals are looking around the area and saying, it's only 10 miles to the children's hospital. why are we bothering to do this. it's too hard. it's costing too much money. every hospital makes their own decision. >> what is a solution look like? >> one is how are we paying for medical care for kids in general so we have medical care which is a safety net program and that sort of sets the floor for payment so if you are at the hospital taking care of adults, you know you are getting medicare rates.

when you have adults with other type of insurance they are actually getting more than medicare rates. the floor for kids is actually medicaid and medicaid pays much less than medicare. sometimes it's like 70% on the dollar. so $.70 for each dollar and that's not covering the cost and it doesn't cover the cost of kids who don't even have insurance and it doesn't cover the cost of what it takes to have a fully trained staff and 24/7 pediatricians and we really need to have a system that prioritizes care for kids and sets up what is done in rural hospitals like the guaranteed payment. if you take care of kids you will be cap told so we can keep these places open and have the people needed to do what needs to be done. >> thanks for your insights and your time.

right now on our website, everything you need to know about the historic cost-of-living increases that social security recipients will get in 2023. all that and more on pbs.org/newshour. that is pbs news week and for tonight. on sunday we look at the midterm races in ohio and how they might affect the direction of the next congress. i'm jeff in it. from all of us here at pbs news week and, thanks for spending part of your saturday with us. >> major funding for pbs news week and has been provided by. -- weekend has been provided by. and with that the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which isesponsible for its caption content and accuracy.]

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