Colorado Voters to Decide Medicaid Ban on Youth Gender Surgeries
Colorado's November ballot includes Proposition 135, which would prohibit health care professionals from performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors and bar state and federal funding, including Medicaid, from covering such procedures. The measure, backed by Protect Kids Colorado, is opposed by a coalition of LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, Democratic officials, and the Colorado Medical Society, whose board says the measure's vague language around a minor's "perception of sex or gender" could make care delivery too legally uncertain for providers to administer. Gender-affirming surgeries for minors are rare nationally and already unavailable at Colorado's two major pediatric hospital systems, which halted such care in 2025 amid federal pressure. The measure goes before voters in November 2026.