I work at an intermediate care facility in Ohio, USA. A few years ago, the Republican-dominated legislature wanted to close down all intermediate care facilities in favor of moving all our residents to community settings where we would not be allowed nor able (given the decreased staff to resident ratio) to supervise or restrict the residents nearly as much. In the meantime, until recently the state had been decreasing our medicaid funding every year. Now we are down to barely 1 staff to 6 residents without a Supervisor or extra staff on hand in a building of a hair under 36 residents.

Most times we do ok, but to give one an idea of how serious behaviors can get: We have had at least one staff permanently disabled by having their head repeatedly slammed into the asphalt of our parking lot only to be stopped by the staff biting into the resident's arm. Another resident used to have extremely violent biting and pinching and head-butting behaviors that took three people an entire day to stop. Some residents have extensive knowledge of roadways and have walked miles away from our facility (we are not allowed to stop them). Some residents will try to break their heads open on floors. Other residents have sexually assaulted or almost strangled to death other residents.

This doesn't even get close to all the health problems they have, the ones with families who don't hardly even call, the ones who can't visit their families for being too dangerous to themselves and other people...

I once heard on Catholic radio years ago that some Nordic country (Iceland...?) had sharply reduced its percentage of people with Down's syndrome. The hosts were upset that it came from years of people getting prenatal tests and choosing abortion rather than from having a miracle cure.

Our current dry spell of direct support professionals in Ohio is projected to last for the next 30 years according to one of our administrators.

Some of the people in my line of work are nearing retirement age. We all are dealing with some form of anxiety or depression. Many of us have kids and grandkids. We had so many more staff years ago and even then I was doing 80-some hour weeks (18 hours a day is the shift limit).

If there is an increase in unwanted births, there will be an increase in residents I take care of in all too few years' time. USA citizens already don't want or can't take care of these people. The pro-life leadership doesn't want to pay for these people. Some of these people can get pregnant. I think of countries where pro-life politicians did gain absolute control, and I can't see the lives of my residents and my co-workers getting any better. Likely, if abortion and contraception and sex education following it are outlawed nationwide, life for us is going to get so much worse.