Aurora, Colo.-based Children’s Hospital Colorado pleaded not guilty July 20 to an allegation that it has defied a court order to resume gender-affirming care for transgender youth, according to The Colorado Sun.
The plea came during a brief hearing in Denver District Court, where Judge Ericka Englert scheduled a dayslong trial for mid-September to decide whether the hospital should be held in contempt, the Sun reported July 20.
Four transgender youth and their families sued the hospital, alleging discrimination after it stopped writing prescriptions for hormones and puberty blockers for patients younger than 18. The hospital has continued mental health support for those patients and has never performed gender-affirming surgeries on minors.
Children’s Hospital Colorado halted the prescriptions in late 2025 after federal threats to penalize hospitals and clinicians who provide the care. The hospital argues that resuming the prescriptions could trigger a cascade of federal sanctions that could force it to close.
In 2024, Children’s received $182.6 million in funding — most of it federal — and nearly half its patients are Medicaid enrollees, according to court documents.
In a 5-2 decision May 18, the Colorado Supreme Court said it found evidence the hospital violated a state antidiscrimination law to support an injunction, which Ms. Englert then entered. The order bars the hospital from “refusing to provide medically necessary gender-affirming care to transgender patients pending resolution of this matter.”
Children’s Hospital Colorado updated its scope-of-services statement to say it offers gender-affirming care to youth. But the hospital said its physicians — employed by the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, not by the hospital — have refused to resume the prescriptions, citing fears of civil sanctions or criminal charges.
Children’s Hospital Colorado said it cannot override its physicians’ professional judgment, the Sun reported.
Attorneys for the patients countered that the hospital cannot escape responsibility for discrimination by shifting it to the physicians, and that the physicians’ decision is not grounded in what is medically best for the patients.
There will be no jury for the proceeding; Ms. Englert will rule on a bulk of the evidence.
If the hospital is found in contempt, the law allows Ms. Englert to sentence a responsible party to up to six months in jail. The plaintiffs have asked instead for a fine of $50,000 a day until care is fully restored.
The case is part of a widening national divide over pediatric gender care. Over the last 18 months, U.S. hospitals and systems have reduced or shuttered gender care services as HHS works to halt CMS payments to hospitals that provide the care to minors, and Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital agreed in May to open the nation’s first “detransition” clinic.
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