"Historically, healthcare providers have generally been free to refuse to perform abortions. At common law, physicians actually had no duty to treat any patient at all, even in an emergency. While the exact legal status of abortion at common law is the subject of intense debate, there has been no suggestion from historians on either side that providers were forced by the government to participate in abortions. In fact, even historians supporting the Roe decision acknowledge that abortion was at best tolerated—rather than expressly legalized—and that the law dealt quite harshly with abortion providers, including imposing the death penalty on the provider if a woman died during an abortion. Moreover, medical ethics codes for centuries prohibited participation in abortions—a prohibition that would be difficult to follow if the state could force medical providers to perform abortions."