Anti-Abortion Forces Reassess Their Tactics After Ballot Defeat in Albuquerque ALBUQUERQUE - The decisive defeat of a municipal ballot measure here that sought to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy left anti-abortion forces conceding that some of their tactics had backfired and that they had less support among Catholic Hispanic voters than they had expected. "The signs, the graphic pictures, they hurt us much more than they helped us," Elisa Martinez, executive director of Protect ABQ Women and Children, a local group formed to push for the measure, said in an interview on Wednesday, as she second-guessed some of the tactics used by national anti-abortion groups who joined the fight. Instead of common-sense regulation, it became about extremism. The referendum had been closely watched because it was the first time a city had been asked to approve such a ban, potentially opening up a new front in the national abortion battle. But the measure was defeated, 55 percent to 45 percent, on Tuesday, according to the city clerk's office. Albuquerque is a politically mixed city with a Republican mayor but a record of social liberalism where voters approved by a 2-to-1 ratio last year an increase to the minimum wage and where the convention bureau promotes the city as being "out all-around" because of its gay-friendly atmosphere. Still, proponents of the abortion measure had thought that Hispanics, who make up almost half of the population in the city, would be receptive to their cause. A poll by The Albuquerque Journal conducted in September showed that 54 percent of likely voters planned to support the referendum while 39 percent opposed it. The high stakes led to a last-minute infusion of money from national groups on both sides, from both Planned Parenthood and the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion political action committee. Combined, roughly $1 million flowed into the campaigns, paying for things like television ads and ground operations of unprecedented scope and size in this city. So far, 12 states have enacted bans on abortion at 18 or 20 weeks after conception. After efforts to pass a statewide abortion ban failed to gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Legislature in New Mexico, abortion opponents collected enough signatures to hold the referendum. The ballot measure was particularly aimed at Southwestern Women's Options, one of only two clinics in New Mexico that perform abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. On its Web site, the clinic offers to help patients find lodging and points out its proximity to the airport, an acknowledgment that at least some of the people who go there come from other states. Others drive; there are often out-of-state license plates in its parking lot. Anti-abortion groups believe that this clinic is now performing more late-term procedures than any other in the country, though no data are available. Tara Shaver, a former intern for Operation Rescue, the militant group based in Kansas, referred to Albuquerque as "the late-term abortion capital of the country." Planned Parenthood's contributions helped pay for television ads and the structure to support the armies of volunteers who fanned across the city, prodding voters to oppose the measure. The money from the Susan B. Anthony List also paid for ads, as well as pamphlets distributed in churches and spots that ran all day on Tuesday on Christian and talk-radio stations. But Gabriel R. Sanchez, director of research at the polling firm Latino Decisions and professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, said the ban's proponents here missed that "the more nuanced understanding that Hispanics in this city, as in this state, do not fit into the national stereotype." Opponents of the ban said they were able to appeal across party lines. "Our success came from the fact that we realized early on that this was an ideological issue, and not the partisan issue that folks had made it up to be," said Julianna Koob, a legislative advocate for Planned Parenthood of New Mexico, one of the groups in the Respect ABQ Women coalition, which led the advocacy against the ban. It may not be the end of the fight, though. Ms. Martinez said she was already looking to help other New Mexico cities interested in pushing bans like the one proposed in Albuquerque, while pressuring the Legislature to outlaw abortion in the state, even though it is a strategy that has been tried and has failed in the past. She said, "We were outspent, outnumbered and probably out-organized, but we've learned to do it better next time."