The state's supreme court must decide if it is discrimination to deny gender-affirming care to children. A hearing on the matter was held in the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday as a group of parents sued the hospital to reinstate care for their children.

Children's Hospital Colorado stopped offering gender-affirming care in January after a declaration by the US Secretary of Health, Secretary Robert Kennedy. Kennedy said he would block federal funding for hospitals offering those services, arguing that gender-affirming care is not a safe or effective treatment. But Children's still offers similar care for cisgender kids, who identify as their assigned gender at birth.

Under the pseudonym Denisha Doe, one of the parents involved in the lawsuit against Children's Hospital of Colorado for her child's access to medical care.

"Really, from the time she could talk, she was asserting her gender identity," Doe said, "We made the really difficult decision to move here two and a half years ago, and we were really looking at states that would ensure our access to gender-affirming care."

Doe's daughter was treated at the Children's Hospital of Colorado, where she was prescribed puberty blockers. But that treatment ended in January, and Doe says her daughter has since had suicidal thoughts.

"It brought her to her knees, to the point where she was willing to end her life. That's not okay," Doe said, "Obviously, it's every parent's worst nightmare."

The hospital's new policy to suspend gender-affirming care came after the federal government threatened to pull funding from hospitals that provide it. This policy is still moving through the courts.

Chief Legal Officer for Children's Hospital Colorado, Patrick O'Rourke, said, "It is not a decision that we don't believe in the care. It's a decision that's based on the fact that if we provide the care right now, they may take away our ability to do it."

O'Rourke said in theory, the threats could impact the hospital's license, and in theory, could close. 

"We don't see that happening very often, but we've never seen actions taken like this before by the government against a group of patients and their caregivers," O'Rourke said.

The hospital says the gender affirming drugs to delay puberty are also used to treat cisgender patients, pushing the Colorado Supreme Court to ask if that could be considered a form of discrimination.

"How do you justify treating two groups of people differently when all of them have a medical necessity that requires medication?" said Colorado Supreme Court Justice Susan Blanco.  

Doe says this treatment is at the crux of her suit against the hospital. "The fact that [Children's administrators] have the audacity to continue this same type of care for other children, it makes you feel like, oh, okay, so our children are the ones that are expendable," she said.

Meanwhile, Doe says she's finding an alternative treatment that's less safe and less regulated to ensure her child has continued access to her medication. Still, Children's says they need to keep their doors open.

"You can't wait for the harm to happen. If Children's Hospital Colorado were unable to provide care for people who are on programs like Medicaid, they would have nowhere else to turn," O'Rourke said.

At Tuesday's hearing, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Richard Gabriel said this could set a precedent for limiting care in the future. 

"The government has all the cards, and they control all the money, and I'm concerned about that precedent," Gabriel said.

It could be weeks before there is a decision from the Colorado Supreme Court about whether and how they administer gender-affirming care, and the court acknowledged this issue could likely end up in the US Supreme Court.