A Superior Court judge agreed Thursday to postpone the next scheduled hearing in the state Attorney General’s gender-affirming care lawsuit against Rady Children’s Hospital, ordering that the temporary restraining order that restored therapy earlier this month remain in effect.

While court records indicate that the delay is administrative in nature, it nonetheless provides an additional 48 days before Judge Matthew Braner will hear arguments on whether Rady should be required to maintain gender services or reinstitute its decision made on Jan. 20 to stop providing procedures and prescriptions under heavy pressure from the federal government.

The extra time before the issue is once again up for debate is appreciated, said Kathie Moehlig, executive of TransFamily Support Services, a San Diego-based advocacy group.

“We have been working closely with the staff at the clinic to get as many families the care they need as quickly as we can,” Moehlig said in an email. “Of course, there are still delays with insurance approvals and such, but this new 60-day window will be helpful for many families.”

Braner’s order moved the next scheduled hearing from March 10 to April 27, a change of 48 days, but referenced 60 days in the court document, apparently counting forward from Thursday, Feb. 26.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Rady in late January, asking the courts to order the hospital, which operates in San Diego and Orange counties, to continue such services. The AG argues that services should be restored because they are not illegal in California, threatened funding cuts will be heavily opposed and may never occur and because the children’s hospital promised to maintain gender care under an agreement that allowed Rady and Children’s Hospital of Orange County to merge.

Both sides ultimately agreed to the delay, taking more time to sharpen legal arguments for and against Bonta’s reasons for seeking to compel Rady to keep its Center for Gender Affirming Care open and providing its original offering of services. Rady notes that, while many treatments were curtailed in January, it never stopped providing some services, such as mental health care. The AG’s recent status update filing also expressed concerns that the center’s director recently resigned.

“No one is currently serving as interim director,” the state’s legal brief said. “The people understand that the director has played a vital role in ensuring patients can access the care they need.

“The people strongly urge (Rady Children’s Hospital) to appoint an interim director to provide continuity of care for patients.”

In response, Rady confirmed that the center’s director did resign Feb. 20.

“Currently, the director, specialty clinics, is performing the functions of the director of the Center for Gender-Affirming Care,” Rady said.

Rady’s website no longer includes a page for the center.

But the Internet Archive contains a version of the center’s website from 2023 that lists clinical social worker Bixby Marino-Kibbee as its director.

Marino-Kibbee’s LinkedIn page indicates that they served as director from January 2019 through February 2026. Efforts to reach the former director were unsuccessful on Friday afternoon.

The hospital also provided the court with an update on patients served since the temporary restraining order requiring resumption of all services except surgeries was issued on Feb. 6.

Rady reports that there have been 46 gender care visits in Orange County. The number of visits was not listed in San Diego County, though Rady indicates that it “provided 88 prescriptions for 65 patients and scheduled behavioral health appointments for 106 patients who are 18 years or younger” since the restraining order took effect.

Children’s Hospital of Orange County reported providing one medical injection and four prescription refills for patients age 19 and older and 19 medication orders for 14 patients aged 18 and younger. Patients in that age group also received eight injections and seven prescriptions. Rady said its clinic has not provided “any hormone therapy or pharmacological interventions” under the restraining order.