You Know Me movement

"You Know Me" has been identified and referred to as a viral social media campaign and movement.[22] The movement has gained international media coverage outside the US, for instance in Germany,[23] Italy,[24] France,[25] The Netherlands[26] and South Korea.[27]

Lisa Bouyeure, a columnist for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, wrote about the May 2019 Alabama abortion ban in her column and how the events reminded her of the TV show The Handmaid's Tale. She noted that #YouKnowMe is "a start, such a warm wave of solidarity in an ice-cold conservative climate, but let's hope that it will really change something. You grant every baby to be born at a time when The Handmaid's Tale is fiction again."[28]

Mare Hotterbeekx, a journalist for the Belgium magazine Knack's weekend edition, stated that the hashtag #YouKnowMe causing women to massively share their abortion stories was "an openness that Belgian women can only dream of".[29]

Kathy Michaels, a journalist for InfoTel Canada, started her opinion article on the #YouKnowMe movement with the question "Have you had an abortion?". She continued stating "don't say because I don't care and neither should anyone else. #YouKnowMe movement or not, it's no more anyone's business if you terminated a pregnancy than it is if your significant other has a low sperm count or if you're having a series of particularly unpleasant periods that require a visit to your GP." Michaels remarked further that people in her social network had started posting articles from the US "lamenting the backward momentum south of the border and expressing fear that a cultural black hole is going to suck us all in". She finished with the statement, "The good news is that this is happening in an election year so those of you who care can start doing the work needed to ensure your needs and interests are best represented when and if the time comes to raise this issue again. Until then, #YouDontNeedToKnowMe. We're Canadian and that means something when it comes to bodily autonomy."[30]

Kari Postma and Robin Smeets of Dance4Life addressed the #YouKnowMe hashtag in an opinion article in Dutch newspaper Trouw. Postma and Smeets voiced their concerns about the 2019 anti-abortion movements in America, remarking that "the growth of the anti-abortion lobby ensures that girls and women who terminate a pregnancy are stigmatized and hardly talk about it" which they considered "a worrying development". They wrote that abortion is an "important acquired right in the Netherlands" and given that "the right to abortion is under international fire", people in the Netherlands should make a "clear pro-choice sound in the Netherlands". Postma and Smeets stated that safe environments for women should be created so they "dare to tell about their decision, whether or not via #YouKnowMe" and that "It is up to all of us not to condemn but to respect women who exercise their freedom of choice".[31]

Vanja Deželić, a journalist for Vijesti.hr, compared the #YouKnowMe movement to the Croatian #Spasime movement (transl. #SaveMe), which started in March 2019 and aims to collect testimonies about domestic abuse and to fight domestic violence in Croatia.[32] Deželić wrote that anti-abortion movements had become more active in Croatia and were aiming for similar law changes such as the 2019 six-week abortion ban that passed in Alabama.[33] Deželić stated that resistance against these anti-abortion movements could happen in Croatia based on the #YouKnowMe movement and thanks to Busy Philipps.[34]

Arwa Mahdawi, a columnist for The Guardian, wrote that "while #YouKnowMe is powerful, it's also profoundly depressing" and that women should not have to tell abortion stories to remind lawmakers that they are human.[35]

Meghan Flaherty, a writer for The Seattle Times, wrote that she felt "deeply humbled and heartened" by the #YouKnowMe stories she read, but also noted many women used the hashtag to explain their reasons for abortion, which she found "problematic". Flaherty wrote that "personal reproductive health decision-making power and the tools to implement those decisions are fundamental human rights. No woman or man should have to justify the decisions they make about their own body and parenthood."[36]

Madeline Fry, a commentary writer for The Washington Examiner, argued that the "heartbreaking" stories within the #YouKnowMe hashtag "didn't justify the pro-abortion cause", remarking however that the movement was "less shameless" than "#ShoutYourAbortion, the repulsive no-regrets movement".[37]

• Abortion in the United States by state
• Hashtag activism
• Me Too movement
• Rape
• List of songs about abortion
• Manifesto of the 343
• Spasime movement
• Ele Não movement