{"id":565,"date":"2026-06-16T10:03:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=565"},"modified":"2026-06-16T10:03:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:03:03","slug":"childrens-hospital-doctors-refuse-to-provide-gender-affirming-care-to-trans-youth-fearing-criminal-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=565","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Hospital doctors refuse to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, fearing criminal charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado said Monday that it was resuming gender-affirming care for transgender youth after it was forced to do so by a court order but that none of its doctors are willing to actually provide the care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado man dies while hiking 14,000-foot mountain near Ouray<\/a><\/p>\n

The announcement means the hospital is complying with the court order and yet, transgender kids and teens will not get care from the doctors who work at Children\u2019s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity, a clinic that provides prescriptions for hormone therapy and puberty blockers. The Aurora hospital does not perform gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 18 and never has.<\/p>\n

The handful of doctors who work in the clinic, mainly adolescent specialists and endocrinologists, determined after seeking their own legal advice that providing the care might mean they lose their licenses or are targeted with criminal charges, the hospital said. They are employed by the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine and have the autonomy to decide what care to provide and what drugs to prescribe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The doctors\u2019 concerns stem from recent actions against providers and hospitals in other states.<\/p>\n

In Texas, a federal grand jury is issuing criminal subpoenas as it investigates gender-affirming care for children. Texas Children\u2019s Hospital agreed in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to terminate and revoke the medical privileges of five doctors who provided gender-affirming care, as well as start the nation\u2019s first \u201cdetransition clinic.\u201d In Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic agreed in a settlement that the hospital would not provide gender-affirming care for 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the transgender patients who sued the hospital and won at the state\u2019s highest court called the hospital\u2019s announcement \u201cshameful\u201d and accused Children\u2019s of throwing its doctors \u201cunder the bus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of complying with the court order, Children\u2019s Hospital is now claiming that it is not responsible for whether its medical staff discriminates against children based on sex, gender identity, race, religion, or any other protected category,\u201d attorney Paula Greisen said via email. \u201cThat is false. Children\u2019s Board of Directors implemented a policy telling its staff to stop providing gender-affirming care, and they did as they were told. Now the Hospital is throwing the providers \u2018under the bus\u2019 and claiming that the doctors are refusing to comply with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s suspended gender-affirming care in January after threats from the federal government that it could lose Medicaid funding, which could mean the hospital could not afford to provide care for tens of thousands of patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About half of the hospital\u2019s patients are covered by the government insurance program for people with low incomes. Children\u2019s is the only hospital in the state that offers some procedures, including pediatric heart transplants and bone marrow transplants, which means children on Medicaid would have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to get that critical care if they could not go to Children\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more How three Denver artists are spending $50,000 to fund their passions<\/a><\/p>\n

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 5-2 on May 18 that Children\u2019s should resume providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, deciding in favor of transgender patients who had sued the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s highest court returned the case to a lower court, saying a judge should issue an injunction requiring the hospital to resume care. That lower court judge, Denver District Judge Ericka F.E. Englert, issued the injunction Thursday, and Children\u2019s confirmed Monday that care would resume, at least as an offering in the hospital\u2019s array of services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Children\u2019s said the hospital had \u201creinstated medical gender-affirming care into our scope of services\u201d \u2014 and then added that every medical doctor in the gender-affirming care clinic \u201chas independently decided they will not prescribe or renew gender-affirming medications for patients under age 18.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that these changes have been challenging for patients,\u202ffamilies\u202fand team members, and we empathize with their experience,\u201d the hospital said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July, the U.S. Department of Justice subpoenaed Children\u2019s for sensitive patient medical information, employee personnel files, internal emails, billing records and other documents as part of an investigation into the off-label use of prescriptions for gender-affirming care. The hospital is fighting the subpoena.<\/p>\n

When the hospital suspended gender-affirming care, a group of transgender children and their families took the matter to court, arguing the sudden suspension of care was causing depression and trauma. They also argued that they were being discriminated against, because while Children\u2019s was continuing to provide hormone therapy and puberty blockers to children who are not transgender for other medical reasons, it cut off those services for children who are transgender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The relationship between the families and the hospital was further strained this month when Children\u2019s asked a judge to require the families to post a $250,000 bond before the hospital would restore gender-affirming care. The hospital first argued that seeking a bond was appropriate given the financial risks the hospital faces to provide their children the care. But then Children\u2019s dropped the request the next day, saying it had \u201cno desire to cause any concern for these patients and families.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the families, meanwhile, said it was \u201creprehensible\u201d to ask families to cover a bond.<\/p>\n

Read more Can you be pulled over for having tinted windows in Colorado?<\/a><\/p>\n

In the order requiring care to resume, Judge Englert set bond at $1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado was forced to resume gender-affirming care through a court order, but the doctors who work there won\u2019t do it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\nChildren\u2019s Hospital doctors refuse to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, fearing criminal charges - Colorado Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=565\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Children\u2019s Hospital doctors refuse to provide gender-affirming care to trans youth, fearing criminal charges - 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