(CNN)Slovenian voters have rejected by a large margin a law that would have given same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children, Slovenia's government says.
Just over 63% of voters in Sunday's referendum rejected the bill redefining marriage as a union between two consenting adults, rather than expressly between a man and a woman.
There was a relatively low rate of participation, with just over 36% of eligible voters turning out, Slovenia's Government Communication Office said.
The defeat of the bill, which would have established full legal equality between heterosexual and same-sex marriage, was seen as a victory for conservatives backed by the Catholic Church, the dominant religious group in the former Yugoslav republic of about 2 million people.
Slovenia had passed a law in March, proposed by the opposition United Left party and supported by the government, giving same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt.
But a conservative civil society group launched a petition against the law before any same-sex couples were able to wed, and it appealed to the courts to turn the matter over to a public vote.
In a referendum in 2012, Slovenian voters had also rejected extending greater rights to same-sex couples.
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