Dr. Kincaid founded Kalamazoo Right to Life in 1970, the first large-scale prolife group in Michigan. Kalamazoo Right to Life and other local groups founded by committed advocates for the unborn coalesced together to successfully fight off an attempt to legalize abortion in 1972. Following the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton a few weeks later, these local groups truly came together to create Right to Life of Michigan, then called Michigan Citizens for Life.
Dr. Kincaid served on the board of Right to Life of Michigan for decades as a founding member. At one point he served as the executive vice president of the board. He continued to serve on the board of Kalamazoo Right to Life until his death on Friday.
The last time many of us saw Dr. Kincaid was at our annual Conference in Kalamazoo a few weeks ago. Dr. Kincaid was such a committed volunteer that it was strange to not see him at a prolife event. He did not let anything be an obstacle to sacrificing his time to help restore legal protection to the unborn child. If you were out-of-state at a national prolife event like the National Right to Life Convention and ran into Joe, you weren't surprised he was there. He is an excellent example of how blessed the prolife movement is to have grassroots individuals willing to always be there for the unborn child.
He often used his medical expertise as a foundation for communicating about the value of all human life. He frequently wrote publicly about the issue of abortion in the pages of his hometown Kalamazoo Gazette. He helped defeat efforts to legalize doctor-prescribed suicide in Michigan in the 1990s.
Many Michiganders are alive today thanks to Dr. Kincaid's efforts over many years, yet likely none of those individuals are aware of the role he played in saving their lives.
Requiescat in pace.
Dr. Joe Kincaid's obituary
