Seizing on the defeat of Proposition 85, campus pro-choice leaders declared yesterday’s election a victory for women’s rights.

California voters rejected the measure, which would have required a doctor to notify parents or guardians of minors seeking an abortion, by an almost 10-point margin. At press time, the margin was 54-46 with 84 percent of precincts reporting.

“I’m glad that California remains a proud, pro-choice state,” said junior Mishan Araujo, co-president of Stanford Students for Choice. “It’s comforting that when [the right to choose is] put to a test, people respond in a good way.”

Noelle Patno, a member of Feminists for Life of America and Stanford Students for Life, held out hope late into the night that the measure could still pass.

“I still hope the proposition is going to pass,” she said. Not passing the proposition “means that parental notification will still not be required, and minors can still be coerced into abortions.”

This was the second ballot initiative in the last year that would have created a parental notification law. A similar measure, Proposition 73, was defeated last November.

Planned Parenthood, a leading abortion-rights group, spent millions of dollars on television ads urging voters to vote no on Proposition 85.

Patno criticized these ads.

“I’ve read articles about how Planned Parenthood’s advertisements falsely claimed that the proposition did not include any exceptions for minors from abusive homes,” she said.

In an election where the Democratic nominee for governor failed to fire up the liberal base, Proposition 85 brought many traditional Democrats to the polls. At the University, an anti-Proposition 85 rally last Friday was headlined by gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides and State Controller Steve Westly.

In exit polls conducted by The Daily, several students like sophomore Tien Le, 19, said that Prop 85 drove them to vote.

“No way in California,” said Le. The registered Democrat said voting no would protect a woman’s right to choose.

Medical School student Matt Goldstein, 24, said there was a lot of discussion in his classes about Prop 85. On Tuesday morning, his Human Health and Disease professor lobbied the class to vote against the measure before lecturing on the male reproductive system.

“It was actually discussed a lot and very heavily publicized,” he said, joined by his girlfriend as he left the El Centro Chicano lounge polling site.

Araujo expressed relief that the measure failed. She said it was one in a string of victories this election.

“Choice is at a critical point in our country,” she said.

In Oregon, a parental notification measure similar to Proposition 85 also failed. A far-reaching ban on abortions in South Dakota, making them illegal except when the mother’s life is in danger, was also voted down. And today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the so-called “partial-birth abortion” ban enacted by Congress in November 2003 but ruled unconstitutional by a lower court. This will be a crucial test on the new Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. An article in today’s Washington Post says that Justice Anthony Kennedy may be the swing vote in the decision.

“I think it’s very important that Americans are participating,” said Araujo. “The vast majority of Americans think a woman should have the right to choose.”

Proposition 85 was sponsored by a San Diego-weekly newspaper owner. California would have become the 16th state with a parental notification law, according to the Associated Press. Another 19 states currently require parental consent.

While Araujo said she hoped there would not be another notification measure on the ballot, Patno said she didn’t know if there would be another initiative in the next election.

“It depends,” she said, “on the people of California.”