{"id":489854,"date":"2026-01-03T16:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489854\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T16:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:57:13","slug":"youth-gender-affirming-care-suspended-at-childrens-hospital-colorado-and-denver-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/489854\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth gender affirming care suspended at Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado<\/a> is suspending all gender-affirming care to patients under 18 years old amid an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the hospital announced that it had notified patients’ families and team members of the decision. Children\u2019s Colorado said that the HHS investigation threatens the hospital\u2019s Medicaid and Medicare funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 (HHS) announced referral of an investigation against Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado (Children\u2019s Colorado), the hospital must suspend all medical gender-affirming care for patients under 18 years old while we await federal court rulings and assess the rapidly evolving legal landscape,\u201d the hospital said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Last week, HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart announced on social media that the referral for investigation<\/a> into Children\u2019s Colorado was sent to the HHS Office of Inspector General under a declaration signed by HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., because the procedures aren\u2019t safe or effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Colorado said effective immediately, it will suspend writing new or renewing prescriptions for gender-affirming care for patients under 18 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that families, in consultation with a trusted healthcare team, know what is best for their child, and that all families, including the families of gender diverse children, should have the ability to receive the expert medical care their child needs to thrive,\u201d the hospital said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Colorado has never provided gender-affirming surgical care for patients under the age of 18. Services will still be provided to patients over 18 years old.<\/p>\n

Denver Health also announced on Friday that it will suspend gender-affirming care to youth in response to the Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes, which are made necessary by the actions of HHS, substantially affect access to critical health services,\u201d Denver Health said in a statement. \u201cWe also are concerned that the important relationships built between our providers and patients to help make informed decisions about their care are being disrupted. We are taking the appropriate steps to ensure our patients and families have the information they need at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver Health stopped performing gender-affirming surgeries in early 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month a series of proposed regulatory actions<\/a> to carry out President Donald Trump\u2019s Executive Order<\/a> to end the practice of gender-affirming procedures for children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, Kennedy controversially signed a declaration finding that the procedures do not meet professionally recognized standards of health care.<\/p>\n

Colorado has since joined 18 other states in suing to block the declaration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Hospital Colorado is suspending all gender-affirming care to patients under 18 years old amid an investigation by…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":489855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[15869,46191,17667,9577,210,1141,1142,19746,108832,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-489854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-behavioral-health","9":"tag-childrens-hospital-colorado","10":"tag-childrens-health","11":"tag-colorado-news","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-health-care","14":"tag-healthcare","15":"tag-transgender","16":"tag-transgender-rights","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115832228737043375","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}