Colorado Supreme Court orders Children’s Hospital to resume gender-affirming care

Colorado’s Supreme Court ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado to resume puberty blockers and hormone therapy for four transgender minors, saying the hospital likely violated state anti-discrimination law when it halted care under federal pressure.

In a 5-2 decision in Boe v. Children’s Hospital Colorado, the court reversed a Denver District Court judge who had refused to issue a preliminary injunction in February. The justices sent the case back with instructions to grant the plaintiffs’ request and require the hospital to provide medically necessary gender-affirming care while the lawsuit continues.

The dispute began after Children’s Hospital Colorado stopped offering puberty blockers and hormonal treatment to minors in January 2026, following a Dec. 18, 2025 declaration from then-HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warning providers of gender-affirming care that they could be excluded from Medicare and Medicaid. The hospital said the threat was existential because it depends heavily on Medicaid reimbursements and feared broader damage to its license, accreditation and commercial insurance participation. Before the pause, the hospital’s TRUE Center for Gender Diversity had been the largest provider of gender-affirming care in Colorado and served both adult and minor patients.

Four transgender youths and their parents sued on Jan. 20, 2026, arguing that Children’s violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act by treating transgender and cisgender patients differently in a place of public accommodation. The plaintiffs said the hospital continued to provide the same medications to cisgender youth for other medical conditions while denying them to transgender patients. The supreme court’s majority said that distinction likely amounted to discrimination based on gender identity, and noted that Children’s has never provided gender-affirming surgeries for minors.

The ruling also rested on the record of harm to the families, including worsened mental health for some children. One child had mentioned suicide after a hospitalization for depression, the court said in describing the plaintiffs’ evidence. Attorney General Phil Weiser welcomed the decision, saying, "With today’s Colorado Supreme Court decision, Colorado families are finally going to get relief after months of uncertainty over whether their children would get the lifesaving care they need." He linked the case to what he called federal attacks on transgender youth and pointed to an April 18, 2026 federal order in Oregon blocking Kennedy’s exclusion threat.

Children’s Hospital Colorado said it was reviewing the ruling and would provide guidance soon. The case now stands as a test of whether state protections for transgender patients can hold when hospitals fear losing federal funding, and it could shape similar fights in courts across the country.