While supporters of the rights of unborn children continue offer thanks for the U.S. Supreme Court’s Wednesday decision to uphold the ban on partial birth abortions, some have cautioned that the ruling is only a small step in halting the destruction of innocent human life.

The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President of Human Life International, spoke briefly to CNA yesterday, noting that “the ruling of the US Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Partial Birth Abortion ban is a mixed blessing.”

“[The Ruling] is a small moral victory for the pro-life side,” Fr. Euteneuer said, “because the high court has decreed that there can be some restrictions placed on an abortion procedure.”

“We recognize, however, that not one baby will be saved by this decision because the abortion industry will just alter their procedures for killing late-term babies and call it by a different name.”

“All defenders of life should be emboldened by this decision to work even harder to end any type of abortion, the greatest injustice of our time,” Euteneuer said.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center echoed the priest’s sentiments saying that the organization “is gratified that the Supreme Court has voted to retain some safeguards for the unborn,” but noting that more must be done.

Nonetheless, the bioethics center added, “this decision by the Supreme Court holds out hope that in the future additional progress might be made to ensure the protection of fetal life by overturning the 1973 decision and halting a gruesome practice that ends over 1 million lives in the U.S. each year.”

Reflecting on the recent massacre at Virginia Tech University, Fr. Euteneuer urged the country to find a consistent respect for all innocent human life.  “The day after a madman went on a rampage at a Virginia university killing 33 innocent adults, the Supreme Court has said that we should stop killing innocent children by this procedure.”

“America needs to be consistent with our own values and say that all killing of innocent human beings should stop,” Euteneuer declared.