Black women in Americas face ‘systemic racism’: UN

Black women throughout the Americas -- and in particular the United States -- face health care mistreatment due to "systemic racism," leading to high death rates during childbirth, the United Nations warned Wednesday.

Maternal mortality among women of African origin is "alarmingly high," both in absolute terms and when compared to non-Black and non-Indigenous women in the region, according to a damning new report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reviewing nine countries in the Americas.

The study drew on data from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the US and Uruguay.

"Structural racism and sexism are evident in maternal health disparities that exist across income levels...," the report said. The disparities are sharpest in US, where African American women are three times more likely to die while pregnant or within six weeks of giving birth than the country's non-Hispanic white women.