Children’s Hospital Restores Gender Care Services but Doctors Decline to Provide Treatment

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun

Children’s 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. 

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’s 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.

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. 

The doctors’ concerns stem from recent actions against providers and hospitals in other states.

In Texas, a federal grand jury is issuing criminal subpoenas as it investigates gender-affirming care for children. Texas Children’s 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’s first “detransition clinic.” In Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic agreed in a settlement that the hospital would not provide gender-affirming care for 20 years. 

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