While the Mexican government has long voiced its commitment to improving healthcare and decreasing maternal mortality, the death rate hovered at approximately 6.2 women’s deaths per 10,000 live births for more than a decade (from 1990 to 2003). Poor women in rural areas were disproportionately affected.
In the late 1990s, a series of reports revealing the existence of secret presidential slush funds galvanized civil society groups in Mexico to push for increased public access to information, including increased access to information on the Mexican government’s budget. By 2002, a law guaranteeing citizen’s rights to information had been passed and a highly-respected commission to oversee its implementation established.