Judge Orders Children’s Hospital to Extend Trans Patient Care

A Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego to continue providing gender-transition care to transgender children through at least late April instead of early March, giving patients another six weeks or more of treatment with puberty blockers and hormones before the services could be cut.

The ruling by Judge Matthew Braner comes as children’s hospitals nationwide continue to eliminate their gender-care clinics under pressure from the Trump Administration. Braner is considering whether to force Rady and its sister hospital in Orange County to continue providing gender-transition therapies. 

Braner has described the hospital system as being between a “rock and a hard place” as it navigate threats from both the state and the federal government.

Earlier this year, the San Diego hospital announced it would eliminate gender-care services because the White House is trying to cut Medicaid funding for transgender services. Administrators say the hospital system cannot survive without the funding, which accounts for 37 percent of its revenue.

But the state sued and convinced Braner to temporarily stop the Rady hospitals from eliminating gender-transition care. The state argues that cutting the services would violate a legal agreement that the San Diego and Orange County hospitals signed with the state before they merged in 2024.

Earlier, Judge Braner told attorneys for the state and the hospitals to meet and discuss the way forward. On Thursday, Braner signed off on an agreement negotiated by the attorneys that allows the services to continue at least through a court hearing on April 27 in order to give them more time to work on their legal arguments.

Previously, the hearing had been set for March 10, and the fate of gender-transition care after that time remained up in the air.

In a court filing, the San Diego hospital disclosed the number of transgender patients who have been treated with puberty blockers and hormone therapy since Feb. 6. It said it has provided prescriptions for 88 patients and scheduled mental health appointments for 108 patients. Transgender patients at the hospital must undergo mental health assessment before they are treated with puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

The judge earlier declined to order the Rady system to continue performing surgeries such as mastectomies, and attorneys said there haven’t been any over the past few weeks at the San Diego hospital.