A Colorado judge ruled Sept. 22 that Aurora-based Children’s Hospital Colorado complied with a court order from this summer, which instructed the hospital to stop refusing gender-affirming care, according to The Colorado Sun.
In May, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered the hospital to restore gender-affirming care services, primarily hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to minors after halting these prescriptions in late 2025.
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.
Two months after the state’s supreme court’s ruling, four transgender youth and their families sued the hospital, claiming it should be held in contempt of court. The judge, Ericka Englert, ruled to not hold Children’s Hospital Colorado in contempt, the Sun reported Sept. 22.
“The Court did not order [Children’s Hospital Colorado] to provide medical gender affirming care,” Ms. Englert wrote in her order. “It ordered CHC to stop refusing to provide that treatment, which CHC did.”
The broader case, which is ongoing, is about whether the hospital discriminated against transgender and gender-diverse children because it still provides hormones and puberty blockers to other patients.
“Children’s Hospital Colorado appreciates the court’s decision dismissing the contempt citation and determining that Children’s Colorado fully complied with all court orders,” a spokesperson told Becker’s. “Throughout this process, we have maintained that the hospital reinstated medical gender-affirming care for minors within our scope of services and that we have acted in accordance with our legal obligations. We remain focused on complying with the law and serving the patients and families who rely on our care.”
Across the U.S., hospitals and health systems have trimmed or ended their gender-affirming care services to pediatric patients because of the federal government’s push to halt these practices.
