Colorado hospital complies with care order, but families still lack prescriptions
A Denver judge denied a contempt request against Children’s Hospital Colorado, finding that the hospital complied with a preliminary order by returning gender-affirming care for minors to its scope of services. The September 23 report from Colorado Newsline says clinicians at the hospital’s TRUE Center nevertheless continue to decline to prescribe puberty blockers or hormone therapy after federal threats. Families in the case remain unable to obtain that care through the program.
The clinicians are employed by the University of Colorado School of Medicine and were not parties to the injunction. The judge found that the hospital could not compel their individual prescribing decisions. This is a ruling about compliance with preliminary relief, not a final decision on the families’ underlying claims; a jury trial is scheduled for January.
Colorado law protects access to gender-affirming care, but the gap between a service being formally available and a patient actually receiving it is consequential. Federal pressure can erode practical access even where state protections remain strong. This provider-specific ruling does not by itself establish a statewide change to TransEscape’s eight Colorado scores.
Read Colorado Newsline’s report on the compliance ruling and care gap.