The Colorado State Supreme Court this week issued a injunction ordering Children’s Hospital Colorado to resume providing medical gender-affirming care to trans children.
The court issued the ruling on Monday, May 18, in the case Boe v. Children’s Hosp. Colo., with Justice William W. Hood III authoring the 5-2 decision declaring that the hospital’s policy to suspend providing this care explicitly discriminates against patients because of their gender identity. That discrimination, the court ruled, is a violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, according to BloombergLaw.com.
The court also said that the injunction, pending a decision on the merits, serves the public interest and any potential harm to CHC and its patients from the federal government initiating enforcement actions is speculative, BloombergLaw.com reported.
The hospital chose to stop providing gender-affirming care last December after U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., issued a declaration that his department may seek to exclude entities from federal healthcare programs if they provide such care to minors. The hospital’s decision to suspend gender-affirming care prompted four plaintiffs, known only by pseudonyms, to file a class action lawsuit against the hospital and its new policy. The plaintiffs were denied injunctive relief by the trial court which ruled, in part, that doing so would be contrary to the public interest.
But Supreme Court Justice Hood said the trial court’s concerns about adverse action against the hospital by the federal government is misplaced because Kennedy’s declaration is not federal law. Hood also said the harm to plaintiffs who lost their gender-affirming care outweighed the speculative harm the hospital could face from the federal government.
BloombergLaw.com notes that Chief Justice Mona M. Marquez and Justices Richard L. Gabriel, Maria E. Berkenkotter and Susan Blanco joined Hood in the majority.
Justice Brian D. Boatright, joined by Justice Carlos A. Samour Jr., dissented, claiming the hospital’s actions didn’t constitute discrimination because the hospital suspended care after Kennedy’s threats to withhold federal funds, not be cause of any individual’s or group’s gender identity.
— Tammye Nash