SALT LAKE CITY -- A bill that would make Utah the 22nd state to require parental consent before a minor could have an abortion would pass constitutional challenges because it provides exemptions for medical emergencies and incest, the bill's chief sponsor said Tuesday.

It also would allow a minor to obtain an abortion without parental consent if a court determined the pregnant minor is mature and capable of giving informed consent or it is in the minor's best interest.

Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, said including that language means Utah could avoid some of the challenges four other states have faced from courts that have prohibited similar laws from taking effect.

Utah is one of 13 states that requires parental notification before an abortion, but Gibson said people younger than 18 aren't mature enough to make decisions about abortion on their own.

"We've decided as a society there are certain things a minor doesn't have the ability to do," Gibson said at a news conference.

Gibson's bill, which has 52 co-sponsors in the House and Senate, would only require one parent to consent to an abortion. The Legislative session begins Monday.

Of the 21 states requiring parental consent, only North Dakota and Mississippi require both parents' permission.

Gibson said he's only requiring one parent's consent because it would be legally difficult to seek permission from both.

Sen. Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, said parents have to take responsibility for their children, including helping decide whether an abortion is warranted.

If that process isn't there, a family's relationship could deteriorate after a child has an abortion, Peterson said.

The bill also deletes language already held unconstitutional requiring a husband to be notified prior to an abortion.

But while the parental consent bill has wide support in the Legislature, not everyone is happy about it.

"If a young girl is old enough to get pregnant, she's old enough to be in a situation where parental consent could be damaging," Theresa Beesley, president of Utah chapter of the National Organization Women, told The Associated Press.

There are plenty of reasons why someone would feel uncomfortable getting parental permission before an abortion, Beesley said.

"I just think that young children, the whole aspect of they're not supposed to be having sex. If they tell their parents it could have serious repercussions ... because their parents don't agree with, or their church doesn't agree with, it," she said.

Beesley praised the judicial bypass option included in the bill and eliminating the language requiring notification of a husband. But she says the most effective way to end abortions among youth is through sex education and contraception.

The lack of an exception to the parental notice law for medical emergencies, abuse and incest is part of the reason Utah received an F from NARAL Pro-Choice America in its annual state report card. But it also cites a lack of abortion facilities in the state and the ability for physicians to opt out of performing an abortion for moral reasons.

There were 195 abortions among children 17 years old and younger in 2003, the most recent year statistics are available from the Utah Department of Public Health. Of those, 24 were performed on girls younger than 15. That's twice as many abortions in the under-15 age group as the year before.

Someone who becomes pregnant when she is 17, but is due to give birth when she is 18, would still need parental consent for an abortion before her 18th birthday under the proposed law.

"The age has to be set somewhere," Gibson said. "If you get up and start down that (exemption) road, you never know where you'll end. To me, it makes perfect sense."

Of the 21 states with laws requiring parental consent, all but two apply to minors under 18. In South Carolina, the law applies to girls under 17 and Delaware's law applies to girls under 16.