No Colorado Hospital Does It Now, So Why Are Opponents Outspending Prop 135 Ten to One?
The Denver Post reported no Colorado hospital offers the surgeries; its Sept. 17 figures show Families Not Politics held $741,511, versus $78,756 for Protect Kids Colorado.
The Denver Post reported that, as of Sept. 17, Families Not Politics held about $741,511 in cash on hand, compared with $78,756 for Protect Kids Colorado. * Colorado should make its hospital pause on child sex-change surgeries a legal boundary. The Denver Post reported on October 19, 2026: “No Colorado hospitals currently offer gender-affirming surgeries to minors.”1
The state Medicaid agency also told the Post that its program had not covered one in at least two years2. “Currently” is the word voters should examine: what keeps that door closed tomorrow?
“Our members have diverse political views, but share the belief that medical decisions belong in the exam room”
The official ballot title says Proposition 135 would prohibit surgery on minors to alter their biological sex characteristics and bar state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursement, and insurance coverage from paying for it. Its funding restriction reaches the same prohibited surgeries3. Hospitals would have a law to obey, not merely a policy to reconsider.
The Post reported that the Trump administration threatened Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals providing puberty blockers, hormones, or surgeries to minors. Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health stopped prescribing blockers and hormones late in 2025. A court order then required Children’s to reinstate those services, the Post reported2. That dispute concerned medications, not surgery. But it exposes the weakness of relying on institutional retreat: federal pressure can prompt a pause, and litigation can push an institution back.
Colorado Medical Society president Dr. Sean Pauzauskie gave the objection plainly: “Our members have diverse political views, but share the belief that medical decisions belong in the exam room,” the Post reported. Protect Kids Colorado director Patricia McKernan argued that the measure protects children from decisions that could prevent them from having children as adults. The Post reported that nearly all teen surgeries in the limited nationwide data involved the chest; those would not affect fertility but would likely prevent breastfeeding2. An exam-room setting does not remove the state’s responsibility to protect minors from irreversible operations.
Vote yes: make the prohibition state law rather than rely on a hospital pause.
Sources
- @denverpost on X, 2026-10-19: No Colorado hospitals currently offer gender-affirming surgeries to minors. https://www.denverpost.com/2026/10/19/proposition-135-colorado-election-transgender-gender-affirming-surgery/?utm_campaign=mrf-twitter-denverpost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&m, 2026-10-19
- Colorado to vote on banning gender-affirming surgeries for teens
- Results for Proposed Initiative #110
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