Colorado Hospital Ordered to Resume Medical Care for Trans Kids

Children’s Hospital Colorado must resume providing medical gender-affirming care to trans children, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled.

The hospital’s policy to suspend providing this care—following pressure from the federal government—explicitly discriminates against patients because of their gender identity in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, Justice William W. Hood III said in a 5-2 decision Monday.

This injunction pending a decision on the merits serves the public interest, and any potential harm to CHC and its patients from the federal government initiating enforcement actions is speculative, the court said.

CHC provided gender-affirming care until US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., issued a declaration in December 2025 that HHS may seek to exclude entities from federal healthcare programs if they provide that care to minors.

The hospital then announced it could no longer provide gender-affirming care to minors, leading four pseudonymous plaintiffs to file a class action seeking to halt CHC’s new policy.

A trial court denied them injunctive relief in part because doing so would be contrary to the public interest.

The trial court’s concern about actions the federal government could take is misplaced because the Kennedy declaration isn’t federal law, Hood said The declaration can be a basis for exclusion from federal programs, but the declaration itself isn’t a federal ban against gender-affirming care, he said.

Hood also said the harm to plaintiffs from the denial of gender-affirming care outweighed the speculative harm the hospital could face if the federal government takes further action against it.

Chief Justice Mona M. Marquez and Justices Richard L. Gabriel, Maria E. Berkenkotter, and Susan Blanco joined in the majority.

Justice Brian D. Boatright, joined by Justice Carlos A. Samour Jr., dissented. The hospital’s actions didn’t constitute discrimination, Boatright said, because the hospital suspended care after the federal government threatened to exclude the hospital from healthcare programs.

The Kennedy declaration—not any individual’s or group’s gender identity—was the reason CHS decided to stop providing medical gender-affirming care, Boatright said.

Greisen Law LLC and Demanding Equality Inc. represented the plaintiffs. Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes represented CHC.

The case is Boe v. Children’s Hosp. Colo., Colo., No. 2026 CO 32, 5/18/26.