LOS ANGELES -- California voters reaffirmed the state's commitment to unrestricted abortion access by rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment that would have required doctors to notify parents before performing the procedure on minors.

Proposition 73 was the first abortion-related measure ever to qualify for the ballot in California. If the amendment had passed -- it lost 53 percent to 47 percent with 99 percent of precincts counted-- California would have become the 35th state requiring either parental notification or consent before minors could terminate their pregnancies.

Opponents had worried about losing ground in one of the first states to legalize abortion. Abortion rights activists said language that defined abortion as causing "the death of the unborn child" persuaded many voters to reject a proposal they otherwise would have been inclined to support.

"It wasn't until the voters really started to pay attention and to look at what was in the measure and what the real outcomes would be that the vote began to swing," said Steve Smith, campaign manager for the Planned Parenthood-backed Campaign for Teen Safety.

Supporters noted that the measure had the most support of all eight initiatives on Tuesday's ballot, all of which failed, showing Californians had wrestled with the issue.

"It was a tough night all the way around for the yes side on any proposition," said Stan Devereux, campaign manager for Parents' Right to Know, the group behind Proposition 73.

Don Sebastiani, a former state assemblyman who helped finance the signature-gathering effort that got the amendment on the ballot, said abortion opponents would probably try again.

"It's only a question of when and where and how this happens, not if it happens," Sebastiani said. "It's just common sense and it makes sense for California families as well as anywhere else in America."

The "death of the unborn child" language stirred controversy during the campaign because the question of whether human life begins at conception, later in pregnancy or at birth is central to the debate over whether abortion should be legal or constitutes murder. Opponents argued that the wording could eventually be used to limit stem cell research.

If Proposition 73 had passed, girls still could have gotten abortions without an adult's permission, but doctors would have been obligated to give a parent or guardian 48 hours notice before performing one.

The notification could be given in person or delivered in writing by certified mail.

Voters in only one other state have rebuffed such measures before -- a parental consent law was defeated in Oregon in 1990, according to Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Physicians for Reproductive Choice.

Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said the job of abortion rights supporters during the campaign was to persuade voters that the parental notification requirement endangered girls who do not have good relationships with their parents.

Although the amendment contained a provision letting girls seek a waiver from a juvenile court judge, opponents argued that some desperate teens would try to self-abort or travel to other states without a notification requirement.

"The voters had to balance how they felt about it as a parent and how they felt about it in terms of protecting teens," Sneer said, "and I think teen safety won in the end."

Abortion opponents had tried for more than two decades to make it harder for girls to terminate pregnancies without their parents' knowledge, but this was the first year a measure qualified for the ballot.

The million-dollar signature-gathering effort was underwritten by three wealthy patrons: Sebastiani, San Diego newspaper publisher James Holman and Dominos Pizza founder Tom Monaghan.