Two Colorado Hospitals Pull the Plug on 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Minors

On December 18, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced new and sweeping regulatory changes that would bring an end to "gender-affirming care" for minors. This includes a ban on puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures for those under 18 years of age.

The reforms mean that hospitals that continue to provide such "gender-affirming care" to children would be stripped of all federal funding as a condition of their participation in Medicare/Medicaid programs.

In his announcement, Kennedy said, "Doctors assume a solemn obligation to protect children. Yet doctors across the country now provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oath, endangering the very lives that they are sworn to safeguard."

"Gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on young people," Kennedy continued, "this is not medicine, it is malpractice. We're done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children."

Of course, Democratic Attorneys General around the country filed suit over these rule changes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James.

In a statement, James said, "Secretary Kennedy cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices."

Of course, none of these Attorneys General sued when the Biden administration mandated the COVID vaccine, even though that was a "decision that belongs in a doctor's office."

But we digress.

Kennedy's threat has resulted in two Colorado hospitals pulling the plug on their "gender-affirming care" for minors.

In a statement, Children's Hospital Colorado said, "Following the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) announcement of an investigation against Children’s Hospital Colorado (Children’s Colorado), the hospital must suspend all medical gender-affirming care for patients under 18 years old. At the same time, we await federal court rulings and assess the rapidly evolving legal landscape. This referral threatens Children’s Colorado’s Medicare and Medicaid funding, risking care for hundreds of thousands of children."

Denver Health issued a similar statement that said, "After careful review of the many escalating actions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to restrict health care institutions and individuals from providing gender affirming care to youth under the age of 18, Denver Health has made the difficult decision to suspend gender affirming care to youth."

One X user warned that the fight is far from over.

"Colorado gender doctors aren't giving up this easily, let me assure you. We already know that the true believers are going into private practice, and the hospitals will refer to them. But these closures are still an important win because they create friction in the process of medicalizing a child—more time for parents to do a gut check. The doctors now have less institutional backing, less prestige," he wrote.

Colorado gender doctors aren't giving up this easily, let me assure you. We already know that the true believers are going into private practice and the hospitals will just refer to them. But, these closures are still an important win because they create friction in the process… https://t.co/v08gSV5z5Y
— Boris Spider (@BorisSpider14) January 3, 2026

"Further, even if a future Democratic president undoes this, the hospitals are not going back into this racket," he continued. "They see the risk now and don't want to be associated with it. They'll blame Trump, but they're happy to jettison these quack doctors. So, the proper response is cautious optimism and resolve to keep fighting these con artists."

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