Country watch: Hong Kong.

Two decades of Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (FPAHK) advocacy of husband-wife communication and cooperation in family planning led Hong Kong's population to finally accept the notion of male responsibility in family planning. Recent surveys have documented high rates of male contraceptive use. The FPAHK established its first clinic to provide men with birth control advice and services in 1960, then set up a vasectomy clinic and installed condom vending machines. Working against prevailing traditional beliefs that childbearing is the exclusive domain of women and that vasectomy harms one's health, the FPAHK began campaigns to motivate men to take a positive and active role in family planning and to correct misinformation on vasectomy. Successful FPAHK efforts to stimulate male support for family planning include the 1977 "Mr. Family Planning" campaign, the 1982 "Family Planning - Male Responsibilities" campaign, and the 1986-87 "Mr. Able" campaign. Although these campaigns ended in the 1980s, men may now be counseled on contraception at 3 of the 8 FPAHK-run birth control clinics.