This post first appeared in the Morning Report.
A Superior Court judge yesterday ordered Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego to not halt gender-transition care today as it had planned. Instead, the hospital must continue providing care through Feb. 10, when Judge Matthew Braner will decide what happens next.
The hospital is stuck between the federal government, which successfully pressured administrators to move to eliminate trans care, and the state, which just filed a lawsuit claiming that Rady’s move violates an agreement.
Voice contributor Randy Dotinga explored what’s at stake in this battle, including the prospect of an “organizational death sentence” for the hospital if it’s punished by the Trump Administration.
Dotinga, who was in the courtroom yesterday, reports that Judge Braner seems torn about what to do. The hospital, the judge said, is stuck “between a rock and a hard place.”
If he rules with the state and forces the gender-transition program to continue, the judge said, the federal government could revoke the hospital’s license to operate, endangering the care of hundreds of thousands of children. He told the lawyers for the hospital and the state to meet prior to next week’s hearing and discuss how to “ensure the safety of the folks whose care is going to be affected in the very near future.”