This week, Alabama House and Senate committees advanced bills which would limit parents’ and doctors’ abilities to determine the best course of medical care for transgender children in the state.

Regardless of your opinion of these bills, all Alabamians should be disturbed by the way they were handled.

These bills will override the well-established standards of care, endorsed by major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association. And, instead, they will replace them with blanket prescriptions and prohibitions, written by non-medical special interest groups, who are hiding behind specious claims of protecting children and family values while they advance a harmful and self-serving agenda.

One would hope that lawmakers would proceed with extreme caution and thoughtfulness as they acted to discard the advice of medical professionals and dictate the decisions of countless Alabama families. Yet, this was clearly not the case. Without investigation of the underlying issues or meaningful consideration of the impact of their actions, legislators rushed these bills through committee in hopes of making them law as quickly as possible.

In the House Health Committee hearing, it was clear that the passage of the bill was a foregone conclusion from the start. At the opening of the meeting, the committee’s chair (Paul Lee, R-Dothan) urged members to make a decision on the legislation that morning, even though that was the first time the committee had heard the bill and no sub-committee had been formed to assess the validity of its premises or its potential impact. When asked, the sponsor of the bill, Wes Allen (R-Troy), did not even know how many families would be affected by the bill or what treatments trans children were currently receiving in the state. He had no sense of the problem that his legislation was seeking to fix. It was clear that no homework had been done.

The hearing was structured to discourage inquiry and understanding, instead favoring a quick decision. The chair of the committee, Mr. Lee, limited discussion to just ten speakers -- five in favor and five against, seemingly chosen at random. Dozens of medical professionals, educators, and families, who had filled the room to express their concerns about the potential impact of the bill, would not be heard. In all, the committee took just thirty minutes of testimony, and few questions were asked. Among the speakers in favor of the bill, two people spoke of their regrets about their past decisions to transition. While their stories were tragic, they reflected the realities of patients who have been treated outside the standards of care. If anything, their stories called for an entirely different solution: improved oversight of medical professionals to ensure they are following best practices.

At the end of the public portion, a few members of the committee expressed concerns that the legislation was being pushed through too quickly -- the committee had not even examined the bill or its stipulations prior to Wednesday’s vote, and it would have a tremendous impact on thousands of Alabamians -- but they were unable to slow the train. Their motions were voted down along strict party lines, and the bill moved forward.

It was one of the most disappointing displays of governance I have ever seen. These lawmakers were not interested considering the concerns of their constituencies or of the professionals who best understood the issues at hand. They were entirely incurious to the consequences of their actions. They weren’t leaders. They were lemmings.

Maybe you don’t care about this particular bill, but this type of mindless, reckless governance should alarm you. The laws we enact affect countless lives, and how we govern ourselves today sets the precedent for how we will govern in the future. This is not a government that is working for its people. It is a government that is blindly pushing an agenda. Alabamians deserve better.

Emma Embry is an entrepreneur and writer in Birmingham.