EDITOR’S NOTE: This story first appeared at ColoradoNewsline.com.
AURORA | Children’s Hospital Colorado has stopped giving all gender-affirming medical treatment to patients 18 years old and younger.
The decision, announced in a memo to all hospital staffers Wednesday, comes in response to the Trump administration’s executive order last week directing hospitals that receive federal research and education grants to “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
Children’s Colorado is a safety-net hospital. Because “nearly half” of its young patients are covered by Medicaid, according to the memo, the executive order threatens its “ability to receive federal healthcare funds that support the care of hundreds of thousands of patients.”
The hospital’s decision means new gender-diverse patients will no longer be given puberty blockers and other hormone-based gender-affirming medical treatment. Those already on such medications will have access only until their prescriptions expire. After that point, Children’s will continue to provide those patients with behavioral and emotional supportive care services, but not medical treatment toward a gender identity that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
“Unfortunately, we may need to make additional and/or sudden changes to this path if additional external factors arise,” the memo added, seeming to anticipate further executive orders from the Trump administration.
Newsline obtained the memo from a hospital staff member who received it. Patrick O’Rourke, the hospital’s chief legal officer, confirmed its authenticity.
The hospital noted in a statement to the news media later Wednesday morning that it “has never provided gender-affirming surgical care for patients under the age of 18.” It did perform some surgeries for patients 18 and older until the summer of 2023, when it started referring surgical patients to other hospitals.
Many families of young patients turned to Denver Health, which is also a safety-net hospital. But because Denver Health receives more than half of its revenue from the federal government, it announced after President Donald Trump’s order last week that it has stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries for people under the age of 19.
“The loss of this funding would critically impair our ability to provide care for the Denver community,” reads a Jan. 30 statement in which Denver Health explained its leadership’s reasoning.
That statement goes on to say, “We recognize this order will impact gender-diverse youth, including increased risk of depression, anxiety and suicidality.”
As for hormone therapy and puberty blockers, Denver Health spokesperson Jacque Montgomery said Wednesday that, at least for now, prescriptions for people 18 and under are “being handled privately with each individual patient and provider.”
Physicians, legal experts and civil rights advocates told Newsline that, because all hospitals that provide some sort of gender-affirming medical care to minors are evaluating their response to Trump’s order, it is unclear which besides Denver Health might continue to do so.
Such care for transgender youth is statistically rare. As The Associated Press has reported, a new study shows that fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received puberty blockers or hormones during a recent five-year period, and most gender-affirming surgeries are not performed on youth.
Trump’s executive order labels gender-affirming care as “sterilizing” and “maiming,” dismissing guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”
Colorado has drawn families from other, largely conservative states where hospitals have not offered gender-affirming surgical or hormone treatment to minors. It is unclear how, if at all, recent decisions by Children’s Colorado and Denver Health will affect the state’s reputation as friendly to gender-diverse people of all ages.
The problem here is that politics has crept into this arena just as it has into everything else. There are parents who will tell you that their child has acted as, played as and shown an interest in things normally like those of the opposite gender, throughout their childhood. Some have identified these individuals as members of an oppressed class. In an effort to affirm their “authentic self,” teachers and other professionals have given these individuals extra attention, care and affirmation. Problems can result when other children, who are otherwise starved for attention, see this and copy them to meet their needs for attention and approval as well. We would want to be careful that these individuals are not guided and coaxed into decisions which might be permanently detrimental to their lives when all they really needed was more attention and to feel special as well.
You’re right Kirk, trans kids shouldn’t get special attention. They should get the same attention and treatment as any other kid. Every kid deserves love, attention, and to feel special. That’s a normal thing to want and to give.
Trans people clearly exist, and have always existed. Every person starts out as a kid. It’s no stretch to understand that some kids are going to be trans. We dismantle oppression through acceptance.
It’s also not clear to me how children who are starved for attention would somehow get more attention by copying the behavior of trans kids if there’s already not enough resources to give those cisgender kids attention because too much is going to trans kids? Wouldn’t that mean we just need more resources for all children? That seems like a good thing, I’d be for that.
My other reply was going to be something about guiding and coaxing children into taking on massive amounts of student loan debt which might be permanently detrimental to their lives when all they really needed was the ability to earn a living wage from a solid public education, but I had already agreed with the basic premise that trans kids should be treated like anyone else.