Another Colorado hospital has joined a list of systems that are making changes to the gender-affirming care they have previously provided.
Children’s Hospital Colorado said in a statement Wednesday that it “must modify our model of care for providing puberty blockers and other hormone-based gender-affirming care treatments.”
The change comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week aiming to halt gender-affirming medical treatments for children and teenagers under the age of 19.
Children’s Hospital Colorado cited the executive order in its statement and said it would still provide other types of care to patients.
“After thorough and thoughtful consideration, Children's Colorado will continue to provide care for patients through behavioral health and supportive care services once approved prescriptions for current patients expire,” the statement said.
Children’s Colorado has never provided gender-affirming surgical care for patients under the age of 18, according to the statement.
The executive order stated the United States “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”
In its statement, the hospital said the executive order “threatens Children’s Hospital Colorado’s ability to receive federal health care funds” that support the care of hundreds of thousands of patients.
It said it would continue to assess the rapidly changing health landscape. “We care deeply about our gender-diverse patients and their families, and we will carefully and responsibly support them as we evolve the model of care we offer,” the statement said.
The new stance at Children’s Hospital Colorado, comes on the heels of similar changes UCHealth and Denver Health announced last week. Both said, in response to the White House order, they were raising the minimum age to get gender-affirming care to 19.
UCHealth noted that prior to the executive order it only offered gender affirming care to adult patients 18 and older and it changed its policy to comply with the order, so that care is now limited to people who are 19 and older.
In a statement, UCHealth said it supported adults’ rights to make informed decisions and had a responsibility to ensure it complies with all applicable laws and regulations.
“We know these changes may be challenging, especially for 18-year-old patients previously approved for gender affirming care, and behavioral health services will be available to help support our patients as they navigate these changes,” the UCHealth statement said.
The changes are happening as the issue also plays out in court.
A federal court directed the federal government to resume other funding that had been frozen by the administration.
In a press release, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who had sued the Trump administration along with 14 other states to stop the broader funding freeze, said the Justice Department has sent a notice stating that federal agencies could not freeze funds on the basis of the president’s executive orders.
“This means that federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care continues to be available, irrespective of the recent executive order,” Weiser’s office said in the release. “If the federal administration takes additional action to impede this critical funding, we will not hesitate to take further legal action.”
It’s not clear how many Coloradans are impacted by the changes. A recent study by researchers in New England found puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones are rarely prescribed to U.S. transgender and gender-diverse adolescents.
