American football star Megan Rapinoe has called out men's silence following the US Supreme Court's decision on abortion rights.
The court on Saturday overturned a landmark ruling which will result in abortion rights being stripped from millions of women.
Abortion rights will now be determined by individual states. Almost half of the country's states have or will pass laws that ban abortion while others have enacted strict measures regulating the procedure.
The ruling has caused outcry across the world and Rapinoe's message on Friday cut through to deliver a speech that is going viral.
The World Cup winner and Olympic gold-medallist dropped a truth bomb on "male silence" on the issue of abortion rights.
Seattle Storm WNBA player Sue Bird and USWNT soccer player Megan Rapinoe. Photo / Getty Images
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rapinoe has not scheduled to front the media on Saturday (AEST) but elected to face the press via Zoom following the Supreme Court's ruling to overturn the precedent established by the Roe v Wade case which defended women's right to choose.
When asked about the issue, Rapinoe spoke for nine minutes uninterrupted.
She had to wipe tears away at times when overcome with emotion.
"How sad a day this is for me personally, for my teammates, for just all of the people out there who this is going to affect," Rapinoe said.
"Pro-choice means that you get to choose. Pro-choice allows other people to be pro-life if that is what works for them, or that is what their beliefs are, or if that is where they're at in their life. Pro-life doesn't allow anybody to make a choice."
She added that it was "hard to put into words" how upset she and her teammates are.
Football star Megan Rapinoe. Photo / Getty Images
Rapinoe is a proud activist in speaking out in support of LGBTQIA causes in ongoing work with her wife, WNBA star Sue Bird.
Her comments on Saturday will be confronting for some men to hear.
"You've been silent to us, as a whole," she said.
"Stand up, say something. This is your wife, this is your sister, this is your friend, this is your girlfriend, this is the mother of your children. This is all of us. And you are allowing a violent and consistent onslaught on the autonomy of women's bodies, on women's rights, on women's minds, on our hearts, on our souls.
"We live in a country that forever tries to chip away at what you have enabled, at what you have been privileged enough to feel your entire life.
Megan Rapinoe has won everything there is to win in football. Photo / Getty Images
"I should not be the loudest voice in the room. No woman should be the loudest voice in the room."
She went on to say men who remain silent are "complicit in all of this".
American footballer Lindsey Horan also spoke out publicly.
"Waking up and hearing that news was not great, to say the least," she said.
"I'm still a little bit shocked and trying to take it all in, but I do feel like this is taking a step backwards for our country."
The American women's football team — and Rapinoe particularly — has been one of the highest-profile vehicles in advancing gender equality in the United States.
The women's soccer team and US Soccer Federation reached a historic agreement in February which secured equal pay for male and female players.
