a woman's movement to make child birth safer for 48 million women around the world. sarah brown, wife of former prime minister gordon brown joining us on ur her effort to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of woman. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. the white house hoped president obama's trip to new york would allow him to highlight the success of his foreign policies specifically libya, but the move by mahmoud abbas to request statehood has rewritten that story line. chuck todd is nbc chief white house correspondent and host of "the daily run down." it has been a game plan gone awry. >> it has. they did the initial briefing, you know, you could -- you could tell, they didn't mention the israeli/palestinian issue. we all knew this palestinian statehood issue was going to come up. they did their initial briefing last week for reporters and it was about libya and the meetings he was going to have with various things including setting up a possible meeting with --

with hamid karzai of afghanistan and different things they were trying to put on the schedule. it wasn't until the q and a period then they got into that and they know like everything in -- any time they dip their toe in the middle east israel/palestinian issue blows it up. >> the palestinians are saying that they want statehood and that they haven't gotten it at the negotiating table. israelis argue it's their fault. both sides will argue that for decades. they had to take some action. going to the u.n. and demanding statehood in the security council, if not there, in the general assembly. there's a lot of bureaucratic moves that the u.s. can take to try to avoid vetoing it in the security council if they were to get -- the palestinians to get nine votes which is what they need. this does isolate the u.s. not even great britain and the other alleys are with the u.s. on this. >> you hit at the issue here. the united states behind the scenes is trying hard, the quartet as people familiar with this, which is at this point the

united states, it's the eu, it's russia, trying to get them to issue a statement to slow down the palestinians. >> they weren't able to do that today. >> it's a way of trying to -- the u.s. doesn't want to look like the lone supporter of israel here, sort of protecting israel. they're hoping to recruit everybody else to get the palestinians to slow down. that hasn't worked. at this point now their best hope and at least i think the administration would argue at this point, their best hope is fine go to the security council, then we can delay it in the security council. we can take it to a committee. they'll slow walk it and maybe at least there isn't going to be the dramatic vote this week which was the big fear, the general assembly vote where you would have some potentially 100 country, 110 countries somehow siding with the palestinians over the israelis and creating a -- >> maybe more than that. protests in the streets. >> a pr debacle for the early is around the world. >> this is rick perry today, sort of crashing on the

president's parade here at the u.n. as though he didn't have enough trouble, rick perry only blocks away giving a speech surrounded by very conservative strong israeli supporters. >> simply put, we would not be here today at this very precipes of such a dangerous move if the obama policy in the middle east wasn't naive and arrogant, misguided, and dangerous. >> obviously opportunism on the part of the republican hopeful who has had his own foreign policy -- >> he participated at a rally that included a lot of conservative israelis, who have no interests in having any sort of negotiated peace with palestinians, that they're to the right of netanyahu and in private there are people in the netanyahu administration who say that's what holds him back from, for instance, getting to a

better diplomatic place with turkey which in it turn would get him in a better diplomatic place in parts of the middle east. perry was putting him 168self on the side to the right of netanyahu. >> a certain amount of appeal among some jewish voters. >> it's -- but it's good -- christian conservative politics as well. >> as evangelicals. >> quickly, there's been a huge tragedy in afghanistan. a long-time american alley, former president rabbani, killed by apparently a suicide bomber. president karzai had just landed in new york, learned the news, he met with president obama, and is now heading back. he's not going to give a speech at the u.n. >> in fact, to give the opportunity to sort of publicly mourn this death, they turned an event that was only going to be still photographers and they brought in cameras because they wanted to give hamid karzai and the president a chance to say their condolence s on camera. >> this was the man leading the peace talks with the taliban.

>> you know -- >> killed at a negotiating session. >> it's just -- the symbolic -- symbolically and actuality is as bad as it gets right now. >> chuck todd, seeing you later, thank you very much. >> all right. rick perry's accusations against the president's israel policy highlights the political and diplomatic tight rope that president obama is walking in new york. the president's relationship with israel the cover story of this week's "new york" magazine, written by john heilemann joining us from austin, texas. hey, john. you write in the piece that the president really has not been that tough on israel, that he really has been its strongest ally. >> well, certainly i think the notion of what i tried to knock down in the piece is the notion is a notion that has caught on among a lot of jewish voters in the united states, we've seen the president's approval rating among jewish voters fall from 83% at the time of his inauguration down to 53% last month. this notion that president obama is anti-israel, not a friend of

israel, somehow betrayed israel, a lot of things rick perry is giving voice to today in new york, that has caught on. i think the big push in my piece was to try to make the argument that although the president has certainly tried to apply tough love with israel, he has been as stallworth an ally when israel needed an alley as it does in the u.n. and as it has on several owe occasions in the past we could talk about as any president in the recent past who's held the oval office. >> and as you captured in your story and in "new york" magazine, you wrote his role, obama's role -- to get netanyahu to sober up. >> correct. i think the notion there is that look, that the president, a lot -- there's a wide diversity of opinion, as you know, that thinks that if israel is going to remain a jewish and democratic state in the face of the demographic changes that are happening, the growth of the

arab populations, growth of the palestinian populations, that they need to reach a two-state solution. the only other options are for them to become either nondemocratic, which is to say, israeli minority governing an arab majority, or for them to become a democracy that's not jewish. and so the zionist dream to some extent depends on a two-state solution and the president has been trying to bring that home in a somewhat more forceful way that some jews in america and some in israel for sure would like. he's tried to also, i think, to treat both sides equally and i think that upsets some american jews who think there's not equal blame to go around, who blame the palestinians primarily for everything that's gone wrong in the region and to see the president try to treat both sides with equal toughness, that doesn't strike them as fair, but that is the policy that the administration has tried to pursue. >> john heilemann, thank you very much. hanna is a former palestinian peace negotiator and an elected member of both the palestinian liberation

organization's executive committee and legislative council and a longtime friend. thank you very much for joining us. >> good to see you again. >> we've seen you so many times in the region over the years. what is the status right now of these talks, behind the scenes, we're told that quartet, so-called quartet, was not able to reach any agreement on the kind of negotiating strategy that would persuade you and president abbas to change strategy this week and not demand statehood? >> it's not a question of changing strategy or demanding statehood. we have the right to freedom, to dignity, a right to have our own state, our only problem is that we have an occupier that has decided that we have no rights whatsoever and that has decided it can single handily determine the fate of the region, not only israel but palestinian and acted outside and above the law as an occupier, taking our land, building settlements, building apartheid walls and so on. we are saying, after negotiating for 20 years, for two decades,

it is time that we do have the international community on board, that we do have some sort of legal basis for negotiations, international law, and that this is not subject either to israeli politics or even to american collusion that has given israel a totally free hand and total immunity to act with full impunity when it comes to the palestinians. >> what about the u.s. argument that going to the security council is actually not the best path? that you need to be the negotiating table to get the borders, to get rights to part of jerusalem, however that is going to be divided, that the -- the security council vote gives you something on paper, it's a symbolic victory perhaps if you were to win it, but that it leaves you with a hallow victory and misleading to your people? >> if it's a hallow victory or misleading why is the israeli government acting with such hysterical irrational response. why are the americans falling all over themselves to defend israel and to fight the palestinians on an issue of

common sense? we're going, as i said, to the international community, the essence of multi [ inaudible ] the source of globalism, to get something seriousness. >> what will change, the day after you win, say you win in the security council, hanna, what will change in terms of the borders, in terms of your access to all -- >> several things will change. it will be clear to the he whole world that palestinian [ inaudible ] is nonnegotiable. two that the territory israel occupied in 1967 including jerusalem is occupied territory not disputed territory up for grabs. three, that all u.n. resolutions and international laws charters and so on and conventions apply to the palestinians including the right to serve determinat n determination, the right to refugees, the right to live in freedom and so on. and ultimately means it empower the palestinians to pursue the two-state solution that israel is destroying, to rescue the chances of peace in the region. >> there have been so many

disputes on both sides. are you prepared to go back to negotiations if as the u.s. is attempting to do, you get some kind of end date, a fast track negotiations, why not sit down with the israelis again? >> we have nothing against negotiations at all. we don't look at negotiations as an objective or as a value on to themselves. as a means an agrument or tool. if an instrument is flawed you fix it. we've lost more land, more lives, more resources, built a wall, they did everything possible to destroy the two-state solution. we want to go to negotiations, but we want them to have boundaries, clear timeline and end in sight and we also need to ensure that they act in accord annance with the requirements of peace, no longer unilateral measures, no longer settlement activities, no longer land theft, state of siege, hundreds of check points that destroy our

lives. we need israel for once to act in accordance, to act in accordance with the requirements of peace, rather than continue to act with impunity to and undermine the foundations of peace and objectives of negotiations. so, negotiations are fine, but they have to have substance, credibilities and binding time line and clear terms of reference. >> thank you very much. thank you for being here. >> you're most welcome. thank you for having me on. >> absolutely. game on, president obama effectively kicks off his re-election campaign, drawing the battle lines over the budget. eugene robinson, jonathan altser here next. send me your thoughts on twitter @mitchellreports. today i own 165 wendy's restaurants. and i get my financing from ge capital. but i also get stuff that goes way beyond banking. we not only lend people money, we help them save it. [ junior ] ge engineers found ways to cut my energy use. [ cheryl ] more efficient lighting helps junior stay open later... [ junior ] and serve more customers. so you're not just getting financial capital...

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so did the president really want to reach a deal with congress on the budget and taxes? sure didn't sound like it when

he called out john boehner in the rose garden yesterday. >> the speaker says we can't have it my way or the highway and then basically says, my way. or the highway. that's not smart. it's not right. >> as the white house said today, the governing phase is over. game on for the re-election campaign. msnbc political analyst eugene robinson is a pulitzer prize winning columnist for "the washington post" and jonathan alter a msnbc political analyst. it's great to be here with the two of you. >> it is great. >> this is great. >> eugene, the president really made his base very happy. just watching michael moore with rachel last night, clearly he and other so-called progressives heard what they want to hear. calling out the speaker in the rose garden that basically said to me and to others watching, this is not a negotiation any longer? >> well, certainly not a

standard obama negotiation, and you could certainly argue that calling out the speaker does not go well for the resumption for the barack and john relationship on the golf course. >> i think that relationship is over. >> i don't agree with that. >> oh, good. jump in, john. >> in a traditional negotiation, each side bashes the other side before they get down to brass tacks, right. that's the way it works in business labor negotiations, government has for many years. in this case, what we've had for the last few years is boehner routinely and mcconnell, routinely trash the president, and the president doesn't respond in kind. so now he's decided he's going to respond in kind. what he's doing to them is no different what they've been doing to him for years now. >> how does that lead to a xroe compromise? >> in the same way that it does in any kind of negotiation. obama's problem has been that

he's been so interested in this kind of ineffective form of bipartisan that he hasn't engaged in a more traditional kind of negotiation. they need to come to some kind of a deal with this super committee or these triggers will kick in, they will have massive cuts in defense, massive cuts in medicare, which nobody wants. so there is still the possibility of some kind of deal. >> november 23rd, the end of -- >> unless they repeal it. >> but here's what else looms. the republican bottom line that there can be not a cent of new revenue in whatever they do, however big the package is, it could be $4 trillion, not a cent of new revenue. you know, the president has drawn a line this time and said well, actually, we're not going to do that. so i don't know exactly how they do get to a deal of any sort of size, even the 1.2 -- >> let me point out to you, your newspaper, "the washington post"

i know the editorial page doesn't speak for you or you the editorial page. >> it doesn't. >> but it says today, that the administration's claim to have come up with a $4 trillion in deficit reduction is misleading. mr. obama backed away from some of the entitlement reforms he entertained in his closed door discussions with john boehner. he's taking medicare off the table unless it's matched by tax increases and he's taking social security completely off the table. >> well, yeah. i mean, you know, you have to recognize, boehner has also backed off from a lot of things he agreed to behind closed doors with obama as well. i do think john has a very good point in that this is more of a traditional negotiation where each side states a more maximalist position and maybe they try to reach in the middle. what has happened before is that the president has not stated a maximalist position. his opening position has been,

calibrated to accommodate what he thinks the republicans will approve, and then he says gee, republican ideas they won't approve it but they want more, more, more. that's the way they negotiate in washington. maybe he'll emulate that. >> is the base happy? >> the base is pretty happy right now and i think they're starting to realize in part because people like bob sh rum are telling them to stop being cry babies as he calls it, they need to act more like republicans when they're in power. ren ronald reagan raised taxes which the base hated, they didn't go we don't like reagan anymore. we got power, we like power, we want to keep power and we're going to rally around the president. democrats traditionally don't do that very well, so this gives them some ability to do it. it also gives obama some cover for some pretty deep cuts that are in this package that are getting no attention now because of this base bait that he's

offered with this tax. >> thank you so much, jonathan and eugene. thanks to you both. and president obama has a shadow in new york today. republican frontrunner rick perry slamming the president just blocks away. is the big apple big enough for both of them? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ in the politico briefing rick perry who has been criticized for being inconsistent on foreign policy asailed what he called president obama's naive, misguided and dangerous policy on israel. maggie is politico's senior political writer. all of that. and also what else has he done to the middle east lately. it's an interesting ploy. does it work for him, though? >> i think it does work for him, actually. it lets him get ahead in the field right now. he's diving in on the issue of the day, essentially number one. number two it helps him with conservative jews who might be eyeing him wearily given he's a

christian evangelical. he looked like he knew actually. he didn't say that much policy wise. he didn't mess it up, no bad moments in the press conference. >> here's a little bit of what he had to say today. >> it's pretty easy. both as an american and as a christian, i am going to stand with israel. you will find me not only welcoming the prime minister of israel who ever that individual may be in the appropriate matter to the white house. as the president of the united states, as the president of the united states, if you want to work for the state department, you will be working in jerusalem. >> which is also another big issue. >> what everyone says and get into office and discover it's a lot harder. >> using the term appeasement about the president's policies

today, does that go a step too far or is that just -- >> i think it is a -- >> very appealing strategy. >> absolutely. to his base, i think it plays very, very well. whether it's going to play particularly well in the middle i'm not so sure. but for people who are following hardline foreign policy and who are critical of the obama administration, this is just pure red meat. this helps him in another key way honestly with donors. a lot of donors are very, very in tune to this issue, this conversation, and they want to see what he has to say and that's as much who he's speaking to here. >> thank you so much, maggie. good to see you. >> thank you. the showdown over statehood is israel prepared to compromise to keep the palestinians from formally requesting u.n. membership? israel's ambassador michael loren joining us next. a policy many called outdated and discriminatory. senator lieberman on winning the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

topping the headlines right

now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- the georgia pardon board rejected a last-ditch effort to save inmate troy davis from the death penalty despite international support for the death row inmate from jimmy carter and the pope among others. davis is set to die by injection tomorrow for the murder of an off-duty police officer mark macphail in 1989. davis's supporters raised doubts about his guilt. the lawyer for the two american hikers jailed by iran for more than two years was sent home from court today. a second judge now needs to sign off on their release and he was a no-show. jane bauer and josh fattal need the judge to sign bail papers but he's on vacation. the hikers seem to be caught in a growing political showdown between president ahmadinejad who promised they would be released and harder liners in the regime. violence is escalating in yemen for the third day. pro-regime forces there have killed nine people in the showdown between protesters and embattled president sa lay

bringing the death to 60. in kabul ant apparent suicide bomb kills rabbani of afghanistan. he was leading the high peace council in afghanistan. he was killed when an unidentified attacker bombed his house. president karzai is cutting short his united nations visit and heading home tomorrow. despite pressure from across the international community to delay his request, palestinian leader mahmoud abbas does plan to request statehood, at least he says so for his people this friday at the u.n. the united states and others are standing by israel strongly opposing this proposal. we're joined by israel's ambassador to the united states michael lorne. the u.s. is almost isolated on the world stage. european leaders and many others are supporting the palestinians and it puts the u.s. in quite a bind in this climate of the arab spring to be standing by israel. is there any way that israel and the palestinians can somehow avert this growing crisis?

>> good afternoon, andrea. good to be here. want to say we deeply appreciate america sticking by its pledges to uphold the principle there's no alterna totive direct talks, that the palestinians are doing trying to declare a state in the united nations. president obama, secretary, ambassador rice, doing a job standing up for america's principles and by standing by their principles america will keep up its support in the middle east and elsewhere. there's one answer. not very complicated. the palestinians return to the negotiating table, prime minister netanyahu has offered to meet abbas any place any time without preconditions to discuss the issues leading to a legitimate permanent two-state solution. >> they say by the settlement activity, that prime minister netanyahu's policies have shut off whole areas that the land that they had hoped would be part of their borders is bit by bit being encoached upon prior

to negotiations. >> all the settlements together take up less than 2% in the west bank. >> we're talking about -- >> the west bank, andrea, that's not the issue. prime minister netanyahu froze all settlement building for ten months an the palestinians still didn't come to the nesh yagts table. he was willing to extend that period if the palestinians were willing to come back. they weren't willing to come back. there's no alternative. secretary of state clinton, president obama have said again and again, no alternative to direct negotiations. we uphold that principle. >> what would be the harm of them getting statehood in the security council or vatican observer status in the general assembly which might enhance their bargaining clout at negotiations? >> president abbas in an editorial in "the new york times" in may said openly he was going to achieve this state status not to advance the peace process, but to more vigorously prosecute the war against us, whether it be an international courts or by sanctioning us in

the general assembly. not about making peace, it's about being stronger in a position of controversy with us. >> is that political rhetoric for the home audience? >> he published in "the new york times" in english. at home he said more combative language. we take him seriously at those words and we think that is what he intends to do. that's why we want him to come back to the negotiating table. >> how concerned are you israel is going to be increasingly isolated and u.s. officials are not happy at israel's position regarding turkey no matter what else happened with turkey they felt that the u.n. task force result which would have acquired an apology, more of an apology from israel to turkey, that was an out for israel to repair relations with turkey. pressuring turkey to stop its aggressive posture toward israel. isn't it crucial, especially with what's happened in egypt and along the boarders, isn't it crucial for you to repair the damage with turkey? >> israel agreed to a u.n.

investigation. turkey agreed to it too. u.n. found they upheld the legality of israel's blockade of gaza and the need of our soldiers to defend themselves and recommended we express regret for the deaths of the turks on the flotilla. we expressed regret, willingness to pay compensation. >> want more than an apology. >> accepted the report. the turks rejected the report unfortunately. we are not looking for a confrontation with it turkey. we regard a relationship between the turkish people and jewish people for hundreds of years as an important relationship and we want to get it back on the right course and we hope that the turkish leadership will sit down with us again and work out whatever differences they feel they have with us. we have no animosity whatsoever toward the turk or turkish people. >> michael or ren, thank you very much. >> as always. >> good luck to everyone on all sides in these difficult days ahead at the united nations. and there is historic change under way for the nation today as the u.s. military accepts applications from openly gay

americans. at 12:01 this morning the pentagon lifted its don't ask, don't tell policy. nearly nine months after president obama signed the repeal. three days after being sworn in, i asked bill clinton why he had accepted a compromise that would not give full rights to gays and lesbians in the military as he had promised to do in his campaign. >> how much of a problem is this for you to accept a compromise which doesn't meet your real goals? >> well, i haven't given up on my real goals. this is a dramatic step forward. normally in the history of civil rights advancements, presidents have not necessarily been in the forefront in the beginning. >> senator joe lieberman is chairman of the senate homeland security committee and joins me now. it all started back then. reluctantly, bill clinton conceded to the military and also to several very powerful members of the senate on both parties and went along with don't ask, don't tell and now you finally helped bring about an end to this along with your republican colleagues in the senate.

>> yeah. i was on the armed services committee, the year that don't ask, don't tell went into effect. i voted against it. you know, president clinton was trying to end a discriminatory policy. he settled for sort of half a loaf and it really morally and practically unsustainable. and took a lot of effort, however, to get this repeal done that we're celebrating today. i give a lot of credit to the national gay and lesbian community, which really made its case, not just here in washington, but to members of congress throughout the country. president obama, secretary gates, admiral mullen, the military leadership played a very important role. this is -- it's a big day, not just for gay and lesbian americans, or certainly not just for those gay and lesbian americans who want to serve in the military, it's a big day for america because i think we've taken the promise of equal opportunity under law, which was the guiding motivation of our

founders in 1776 and now extended it to yet another group. so there's something to celebrate today and incidentally, last word, this one, in a cruelly partisan climate in congress, this passed with bipartisan support. >> well, in fact, i think it was you and if i'm not mistaken susan colins who also pushed this through. >> yes. >> susan deserves an enormous amount of credit because she really believed in this and she was early out for it when a lot of people -- republicans came along with her by the time we finally voted. >> what should happen to more than 13,000 men and women in the military over these years have been forced out of the military, denied their careers, and at great cost to the american military in fact. we've lost some of our best people. we lost a whole contingent of arab translators when we needed them the most. >> the numbers are unbelievable. since don't ask, don't tell went

into effect, almost 14,000 members of the military were discharged only because of their sexual orientation. in other words, nothing related to the quality of their service. so we lost literally hundreds of millions of dollars we had spent training them and we lost their service. there was some 800 people in the last three or four years who have mission critical skills, such as the ones you've mentioned, linguists, medical professionals, also tossed out. so a great loss for our country. the amazing and really inspirational thing to me is how many of these people who were discharged only because of their sexual orientation, who now want to re-enlist and i -- they want to serve their country. god bless them for that. >> and another shout out, we played a clip just a bit ago of mike mullen. it seemed to me at that armed services committee hearing, that mike mullen saying that this was just a matter of integrity, you

could not ask people to lie about themselves and still meet the standards of the military code. but that was a signature moment, it took a year and a half for the pentagon to come along, but the chairman of the joint chiefs made a difference, i think. >> no. i can't agree with you more. that was a turning point moment when the chairman of the joint chiefs, admiral mike mullen, he's a very eloquent man, and a lot of credibility with members of congress, just said, this is wrong. we teach one of the central values of our military and the military is one of the few institutions left in america that still lives by values, is integrity and here we're asking people to lie about themselves. that i think affected a lot of people in both houses and both parties. so this is an unusual star. maybe a fifth star, to give to admiral mike mullen. >> indeed. joe lieberman, thank you very much. thank you for everything you did

on this subject. >> thank you, andrea. be well. >> you too. women joining together to make child birth safer around the world. sarah brown, founder of the white ribbon alliance and wife of prime minister gordon brown is here. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪ i like dat ♪ ♪ i like dat, all right [ male announcer ] mio. a revolutionary water enhancer. add a little...or a lot. for a drink that's just the way you like it. make it yours. make it mio. while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®.

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hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the georgia parole board decided troy davis will be executed tomorrow night despite massive protests and pleas to spare his life. the reason behind the decision and what if any options are left for davis and his supporters. reverend sharpton will join me. hazards to your child's health. a mother pushing for stricter standards when it comes to the playground equipment at restaurants and how often they're cleaned. she actually conducted her own study and wait until you hear what she found lurking on that play ground equipment where kids play and eat. all of that coming up in 15 minutes.

every day an estimated 1,000 women and girls die during pregnancy and child birth from complications that could have been prevented. a growing coalition the white ribbon alliance for safe motherhood is here in new york along the sidelines of the general assembly. sarah brown is a patron and the wife of former prime minister gordon brown and andrea is the group's coordinator in kenya. thank you so much. this is a passion of yours and has grown so strong in the years since you've started it. let's talk about what the real crisis here is. so many women going into child birth without any medical care at all. >> with no medical care and as you say, there are thousand women dieing in pregnancy and child birth every day. two of them, two of those women who die every single day, are in the united states. but those 998 elsewhere in the world, and the fact that they're dying of very easily avoidable causes for the most part, means

there are steps we can take and there are solutions. those solutions center around having health workers there, trained midwives and other professionals and basic simple supplies and equipment. >> angela, you in kenya are trig to make the reality, this come true with more health workers, mid wives and one of the problems is getting out to remote areas? >> yeah. in kenya, get women in kenya every day -- >> 26 die in kenya every day. >> 26. >> out of every 100. >> yeah. >> and 140 newborns every day. a lot of these people are in the remote areas, we don't have health facilities or mid wives because the conditions are so grim and we don't have enough health workers in our country. even in the remote areas some don't have the basic supplies like gloves, simple things like needles to attend to those

mothers. it's actually a bad state of affairs. >> and so for lack of the simple things like as angela said, gloves, needles of course health workers can't even when you do have the medically trained people, they can't help these women and the unborn children. i mean, the infant mortality rate. >> the mother is at the heart of her family, the heart of her community when you're losing a mother, she loses her life, but her newborn is very unlikely to survive or thrive, her oldest surviving children are at such risk without their mother and the community's lost a core member of that world too. so, when you lose a mother, you're losing so much more than that single woman's life as important as that is too, though. >> sarah, when you look around the world and i know you've just traveled around the world, coming to new york, when you look around the world, what are the areas that are most in need? is the african continent? >> subsaharan africa and parts

of southeast asia. a country like india, which is so mixed, actually probably has about 20% of the world's maternal deaths and infant deaths. >> and what can people here in the united states do to help? >> well, through the right ribbon alliance sign up to get more information through white ribbon alliance.org. sign up, join, add your voice, play your part. lots of people are donating and adding support to the other advocacy efforts, but also, writing to your, you know, member of congress, taking your voice through in lots of different ways. we had a gathering yesterday with, you know, hundreds of women coming together, we've met in all kinds of places all over the world and it's that energy that comes from having everyone together, providing a common voice, you know, a bigger voice, so i always say and we always say in the white ribbon alliance everyone has a part to play. >> sarah brown, thank you so much. thanks for what you're doing, just seeing this grow by leaps and bounds in the last few years. and it's such a powerful thing to be doing. and thank you, angela. >> thank you.

and what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours, that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." yeah, i'm married. does it matter? you'd do that for me? really? yeah, i'd like that. who are you talking to? uh, it's jake from state farm. sounds like a really good deal. jake from state farm at three in the morning. who is this? it's jake from state farm. what are you wearing, jake from state farm? [ jake ] uh... khakis. she sounds hideous. well she's a guy, so... [ male announcer ] another reason more people stay with state farm.

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chris, the president is going to give his speech tomorrow morning at the general assembly. that's a big deal, but you have rick perry from only a few blocks away. >> absolutely. this is a classic example of trying to step on the president. the president gave some remarks with perry with very hot rhetoric in my estimation that this administration needed to stop the policy of appeasement in palestine. trying it get into the new stories and newspaper stories about president obama at the un. it's a smart strategy. i tend to think this is not an

election with the economy that will be decided by foreign policy. rick perry and mitt romney is going to have to meet a certain bar in terms of credibility in the same way barack obama had to meet a certain bar that people felt like he could be the president on the foreign and international stage. that's the bar rick perry is trying to meet and trying very harsh contrast with the president in his approach. >> accusing him of being an appeaser. they have struck back saying that ben rhoades, i think that anyone who examined the record on israel will see we have been unshakable in our support. >> andrea, i was just going to add, there is politics when you are running for president, there politics in this. evangelical conservative who is make up a significant portion of the vote in iowa and south carolina are strongly, very

large and strong defenders of israel. coming down as kind of clearly as he can on the side of israel in the mideast is good politics for rick perry. remember in the 2008 race, mike huckabee was very much in a similar vain. 100% supportive of israel and all situations. he knew that that is the position shared by many evangelical voters. they have a tendance to decide and have the dominant say in two of the three very early states. not by accident. >> very smart tactic. that does it for us and this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online and on twitter. my colleague tameron hall has "news nation." >> great to see you. we are following two stories we are waiting to hear from leon

panetta and mike mullen for the first time since don't ask don't tell became history. troy davis is scheduled to be executed at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow evening after a georgia board denied the request for clemency. the family of the man he was convicted of killing said it was the right decision. reverend al sharpton. "news nation" is minutes away. o. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth! [ horn honks ] ♪ oh, those were the best of days ♪ ♪ i still feel the summer rays ♪ that graced our backs as we went down the lane ♪ [ horn honks ] [ male announcer ] when your car is more than just a car to you, the right insurance matters.

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. i'm tameron hall. we have breaking news. the official end of don't ask, don't tell. leon panetta will take questions. the ban on gays openly serving ended the 12:01. the military is prepared to deal with any issues stemming from the repeal. msnbc analyst and a former marine who is now part of the service member's legal defense network and wrote an essay

included in the book. the end of don't ask don't tell. i will start off with you. what is your feeling and reaction at 12 time 01. >> a lot of work to be done, but this is a major milestone in the civil rights movement and we are excited around the country. the celebrations planned in all states. it's an excellent feeling. >> you decided not to reenlist because of don't ask don't tell. you are a veteran. what about the 13,000 or more who were kicked out of a job when you get into the military. you have to love this. this is something you choose to do. what about those who were in a sense abandoned by the country because of their sexuality. >> you are very right. that's the worst feeling you can have, have a passion for a cause for a country that denounces your value because of your sexual orientation not based on the merits of your