Supreme Court abortion ruling updates: WH warns of ‘nightmare scenarios’

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe took several minutes during a media appearance ahead of Saturday's match between the U.S. and Colombia to talk about the Supreme Court ruling on Friday.

"Obviously you can understand from an individual perspective how difficult it is to live in a country where you have a constant, unrelenting, violent tide against you and onslaught as a woman," she said. "And it would be as a gay person and as a non-binary person, as a trans person -- whoever this is going to affect, because it affects a lot more than just women or cis-women. It really does affect us all."

She went on to say the ruling will "disproportionately affect poor women, Black women, brown women, immigrants, women in abusive relationships, women who have been raped, women and girls who have been raped by family members," as well as those who "maybe just didn't make the best choice."

Rapinoe additionally called on men to speak up about the ruling, saying that is "what, frankly, doing the right thing looks like."

Meanwhile, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke out in support of abortion rights.

"The NBA and WNBA believe that women should be able to make their own decisions concerning their health and future, and we believe that freedom should be protected," they said in a joint statement. "We will continue to advocate for gender and health equity, including ensuring our employees have access to reproductive health care, regardless of their location."

"Today's decision is a major step backward for public health," U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said in a statement Friday. "Reproductive health decisions – like all health decisions – should be made by patients and their health care providers."

Murthy said that with restricted access to reproductive health care, there will be more unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

"Ultimately, the health of women and pregnant people is put at risk – an effect that will be felt disproportionately in historically marginalized populations, including communities of color, low-income Americans, and rural residents," he continued.

Murthy said health care providers will be further strained in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and "forced into an impossible choice between doing what's right for their patients and complying with laws that are at odds with their patient's health interests."

The surgeon general said he will continue to support "women’s right to make their own decisions about their health."

Following Friday's Supreme Court decision, Democratic lawmakers have their eyes set on November, hoping the issue of abortion will galvanize widespread support.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., said reproductive rights will be on the ballot in November, but also acknowledged Democrats are going to have to focus on issues like the economy to win support.

“It's not an either-or. We should be talking about the economy. We should be talking about our plan to lower costs for families," Maloney said. "We have a plan, but [Republican] priority is going to be to ban abortion in all 50 states and and that's the choice voters going to get to make.”

Maloney also said Republicans are fixated on banning abortion nationwide, and come election season, they will have to answer to voters.

"Every Republican should answer whether they will criminalize abortion in all 50 states because the Supreme Court said the Constitution doesn't stand in their way. And we know that that is their priority. And those are the wrong priorities,” he added.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who is currently in a hotly contested Senate battle against JD Vance, said he didn’t know if abortion would be a top issue for voters but said the Supreme Court decision could galvanize a movement.

“Largest governmental overreach in the history of our lifetime right here," Ryan said. "And I think Americans are gonna wholly reject that. And while it may not be the top issue, it will be for a lot. And I think it will be a secondary issue for a lot of other people.”

-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa, Allie Pecorin and Gabe Ferris

Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, calling it the first time in history that a constitutional right was taken away from Americans. Harris said the decision takes away the right to privacy.

"For nearly 50 years we have talked about what Roe v. Wade protects. Today, as of right now, as of this minute, we can only talk about what Roe v. Wade protected. Past tense. This is a health care crisis," Harris said while delivering remarks in Plainfield, Illinois.

Harris said the expansion of freedom is not inevitable, encouraging Americans to vote in this year's midterm elections, saying "this is not over."

"Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the health care and reproductive care that they had this morning -- without access to the same health care or reproductive health care that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years," Harris said.

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Abortion ruling a ‘health care crisis,’ VP Harris says

“This is the first time in the history of our nation that a constitutional right has been taken from the people of America,” Harris said.

ABCNews.com