Abortion in Vietnam is legally available and provided free of charge by the state through Article 44 of the 1989 Public Health Protection Law. Vietnam also has one of the highest rates of abortion that has been surveyed in the world and its abortion laws are among the most liberal in Southeast Asia and the world. Legality of abortion in Vietnam Abortion has been available on request from at least 1971 and was made available in the entire country since the 1975 unification. There are a number of laws that codify abortion rights in various ways. Due to its emphasis on family planning, abortion in Vietnam has been legalised without any restrictions on the reason for seeking the abortion. Family planning was made a national priority upon the unification of Vietnam, leading to the incentivization of contraception and abortion acceptance. The Constitution of Vietnam ensures that men and women enjoy equal rights in all circumstances such as reproductive health: "The State, society, families and citizens have the responsibility to provide health care and protection to mother and children; and carry out the population and family planning program." The Vietnamese National Assembly adopted the Law on Marriage and Family in 1960, which is based on four major principles – freedom of marriage; monogamy; gender equality; and the protection of women's and children's rights. The Law on the Protection of Public Health was passed on 30 June 1989, affirming people's right to make reproductive decisions over their body and choose their own contraceptive methods. It states that: "Women have the rights to have abortion; to receive gynecological diagnosis and treatment, and health check-up during pregnancy; and medical service when giving birth at health facilities." By 1989, the Law on Protection of People's Health was approved, affirming the people's right to choose contraceptive methods. In Article 6 of Decision No. 162 of the Council of Ministers in January 1989 obligated that the State was to provide, for free, birth control devices and public-health services for abortions to eligible persons: "The state will supply, free of charge, birth control devices, such as intrauterine loops and condoms, birth control pills and public health services for the insertion of intrauterine loops and abortions to eligible persons who are cadres, manual workers, civil servants or members of the armed forces, persons to whom priority is given under policy and poor persons who register to practice family planning."