Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora should restart gender-affirming care for transgender children, about five months after the hospital stopped providing such treatment in the face of threats to federal funding.
The 5-2 majority on the court wants the lower trial court to reverse its decision and issue a preliminary injunction against the hospital, writing that there is sufficient evidence to prove that the hospital — referred to as CHC in the ruling — violated the state’s anti-discrimination law when it stopped offering care like puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender children but continued offering it to cisgender children for some hormonal conditions. The hospital has never provided gender-affirming surgeries for children.
“CHC has directly tied its decision to suspend medical gender-affirming care to the identity of transgender patients,” Justice William Hood wrote for the majority. “CHC’s decision to suspend medical gender-affirming care to youth denies petitioners the full and equal enjoyment of services based on gender identity.”
The hospital operates the TRUE Center for Gender Diversity, which has historically served both adult and minor patients. In January, the hospital suspended treatment for minors after the Trump administration and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to cut funding to facilities that offer gender-affirming care to minors. The warning from the federal government was existential to the hospital, since it serves a significant number of patients who use Medicaid.
A group of parents of transgender children then sued, seeking an injunction to prevent the hospital from refusing medically-necessary care.
“Petitioners and other transgender youth who sought such care from CHC were suddenly abandoned during a precarious time,” the Monday ruling says. “Without access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy, these children will go through puberty and develop characteristics of a sex with which they do not identify.”
Children’s is “reviewing the court’s ruling and assessing our next steps,” spokesperson Rachael Fowler wrote in an email. The hospital will provide guidance “in the near future.”
Two justices dissent
The mental health of several children has worsened since January, the ruling contends, including one child mentioning suicide after a hospitalization for a depressive episode.
The Denver District Court decided not to require Children’s to restart care. But in its ruling Monday, the state’s highest court stated that the hospital cannot use federal threats — in this case a federal declaration, not a law banning gender-affirming care — to discriminate against transgender children.
“The threat of harm to CHC remains speculative, and CHC has other avenues to address it. Issuing the preliminary injunction petitioners seek won’t cause CHC’s immediate exclusion from federal health care payment programs or cause it to shut down,” the ruling reads.
Justices Brian Boatright and Carlos Samour dissented, writing that the majority’s decision minimizes the extreme consequence of losing federal funding, which would threaten the hospital’s ability to stay open.
Children’s previously stopped providing gender-affirming care for minors in February 2025 following a federal executive order, but it resumed care after a federal judge blocked the order. In July, the U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed the hospital for patient data as par