Glad to hear the govt got a bit stumped by all the hoo haa today - I still think they need to consider it's not about a small minority group - people are coming out of the woodwork everywhere once the TRUTH is explained to them. They are the voices that say "Hey that's not bloody Australian, you can't take women's birth choices away". Keep alerting the taxpayers about hospitals/OB's double dipping and govt paying out our money for elective C-Section's or when it's far cheaper for the govt to allow homebirth to remain as it is (where women currently take personal and financial responsibility) or have a range of options with Medicare and insurance so it's a true maternity reform. Sorry Roxon, you have let your women folk down and sold your soul to the AMA. I wish the media would stop letting the AMA get away with non-evidenced based comments at the end of segments that we can't reply to with the correct answers. I don't want to hear one more word about safety that the govt and the AMA use to trick the mainstream population who are not directly subjected to this lobbying and who clearly are not being told the whole story. I challenge the media to dig a lot deeper.

You would think that these protesters should realise that the majority of people aren't really that interested in their views. I think there are more important issues that need to be addressed, for example having Ballarat the preferred city for the cancer unit at the Ballarat Health services. This project would benefit everyone, not just a few.

I hope these woman that were out protesting have other halves that work. If not maybe these women should be out looking for work not complaining about breeding rights.

For someone who shares their daily view of everything MARK you should of all people should understand these women are trying to get their point across about something they feel strongly about and personally I commend them. Live and let live and keep a woman's choice their own. I do have to wonder though with all the uproar about homebirth. What's next? Unwed mothers being hidden away in convents like in the 50s and 60s? Get real and listen to these people. It's a basic human right that is being violated. Keep up the good work ladies.

I agree with bewildered.I had my children in hospital many years ago and was denied any real say in the process.It was a traumatic experience each time. We need to give women choice and access each need individualy.MARK I wish you were a woman, then you would know what it is like to have such a scary experience as birth with a heap of strangers taking over and doing things to your privates that you never consented to.Then you may have some compassion.We should progress forward,not backwards to dictatorship.Fight for your rights women.I voted for Mr Rudd but I have to say that the protesters dont look that scarry and I cant see why he would not listen to you.

To those who write with intelligence. When 10% of top earning obstetricians made 1.2 billion dollars out of the Gap fee debacle the current Health Minister slashed access. What makes you think hospitals are safe? Good luck with gaining access to hospital statistics. How many doctors do you know who are capable of attending home birth? I have been in this business for 50 years Brave doctors are few. Normal birth does not require any injection of speed inducing drugs or knives into flesh and forks into membrane sacs and screws into baby’s heads. Ask your doctor how many home births she/he has attended? How many times would you carry your pushers and babies to rallies in the rain and in the heat? I am 72 mother of 4 grandmother of 7. I travelled from South Gippsland to Canberra, Werribee and Ballarat - get out of your armchair and read the facts -Why? I am sick of the carnage being wrought on our women in 'safe' hospitals. Midwife, M.Bieoth. B.Appl.S

Mum: Yes the majority of people also were not interested in a women's right to vote, or to be equal to her husband, or to have access to contraception and other things, but through education and protest and women fighting for their rights, slowly the 'majority' changed their views. Home birth is as safe as hospital birth, if you look at the studies you will find that is not debatable, but even bigger is the important issue that a women should have the right to choose where, how and with whom she births. I have done birth in hospital twice with huge trauma, my 3rd was at home and was a healing experience. Hopefully more women can get behind us, as they have done in this past week and agree that even though they may not choose home birth for themselves, it is a valid choice and important for the survival of women's rights, that we do continue to be able to choose how and where we give birth as we were before this horrible legislation!