Welcome to the latest edition of Washington Secrets. Today, I get the lowdown on how anti-abortion activists prepare for arrest, how JD Vance sweet-talked the second lady into having a fourth child, and the odds of it being named Donald…
Randall Terry has been arrested 50 times. By the time you read this, he will have been arrested for the 51st time in his crusade against abortion.
On Thursday night, he stood in front of the altar of a Catholic church. A police officer’s cap was pushed down on his thick gray hair, an oversized blue shirt hung from his spindly frame, and three volunteers were lined up beside him, hands zip-tied behind their backs.
It was all part of a chaotic skit designed to demonstrate how to get arrested properly.
“We are going to be polite,” he told a rapt audience of about 60 people in the pews of the Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Church in Washington, D.C. “We are going to be peaceful.”
“We are going to have 100 bucks in our pocket.”
“We will have our ID checked, our photograph taken, and then we are going to be released. That’s it.”
The takeaway was that getting arrested in Washington was no big deal. There would be no record and no effect on the budding careers of the mostly under-25s in front of him.
Their target is the Department of Health and Human Services. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the HHS secretary, has become a figure of hate for his liberal record, relaxed approach to terminations, and continuing approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
And the Thursday morning protest is part of a new wave of civil disobedience. It revives the direct action tactics that people like Terry say put abortion on the political map during the 1980s and earned him a reputation as an extremist.
Washington Secrets sat in the third pew as Terry and some of the folk heroes of the radical anti-abortion movement — such as Joan Andrews Bell, who has been arrested more than 100 times, Monica Miller, who claims to have recovered thousands of fetuses from medical waste to give them a proper burial, and two protesters pardoned by President Donald Trump — told their stories and fired up the recruits.
Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, described her breakthrough moment, which came while liberating chickens from a Perdue Farms subsidiary in California, while hundreds of activists sang songs.
“I was so moved by this experience,” she said. “It was profound to see so many people sacrificing for these animals.”
Onstage, the practice skit involves protesters confronting Vice President JD Vance, Trump, and Kennedy, represented by volunteers in masks, who cover their eyes, ears, and mouths. See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.
It is a reminder that these activists believe the Trump administration, which was elected in part by the Religious Right, has not followed through on its promises to tackle abortion.
“The pro-life movement has been tamed,” Terry tells Washington Secrets later. His aim is to keep the heat on Trump and his officials.
“If the Trump administration is going to ban the abortion pill, it’s because we gave them the impetus and the momentum to do it without severe political fallout.”
Vance is singled out for specific criticism. The second Catholic to serve as vice president will be a keynote speaker at Friday’s March for Life, when thousands of anti-abortion activists will descend on the nation’s capital.
Terry said Vance’s past comments about mifepristone, when he suggested his hands were tied because the Supreme Court had left access in place, amounted to defending the abortion pill.
“Why are you headlining this march? If that’s his position, it doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “So we as a movement have made the mistake repeatedly where we put partisan loyalty ahead of loyalty to the babies.”
But Terry is controversial within his own movement. He was kicked out of Operation Rescue, the group he founded, in 2010 for his inflammatory rhetoric and tactics, displaying images of fetuses in public, blocking access to clinics, and ignoring court orders.
He is unrepentant and is gearing up to run a slate of candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
His Thursday target was to beat the 30-year record set in Memphis last year, when 17 anti-abortion protesters with Rescue Resurrection were arrested.
A show of hands revealed that some 14 people in the pews were prepared to be picked up by the police.
The training session was about to wrap up with a prayer when Terry was reminded that he had to teach the volunteers a new song: “Ban the Abortion Pill.”
He held his cellphone to the microphone as the sounds of a rock band filled the church.
“Hey, JD Vance,” it went, “Give the babies chance.”
Vance the romantic
The vice president has just taken a moment during a speech in Ohio to let us in on his moves. The Vances this week announced they are expecting their fourth child, and JD Vance described how he sweet-talked the second lady into bed.
He said, “We’re debating having the fourth child. And I said, ‘Honey, you know, the new Trump accounts and the increased Child Tax Credit are coming online, and we got to take advantage of this stuff.’”
Of course, it was a joke designed to underline his message that the Trump administration is making life more affordable. But will the second lady appreciate it?
“She’s gonna be pissed at me about that one,” he admitted sheepishly.
What odds on a Donald Vance?
What will the Vances name their fourth child? Will the second lady have a Caesarean? What’s the over-under on the weight?
Like almost anything else in this world, bookmakers are happy to take your money off you.
So you can get odds of 200/1 from BetOnline.ag that the Vances will name their next child Jesus. It is marginally more likely than Vladimir or Greenland at 250/1.
Anyway, these are the top five. It is perhaps not surprising that a tribute to Turning Point USA is the favorite. But Washington Secrets is a little surprised that Kirk does not make the list.
| Charles/Charlie | 20/1 |
| Don/Donald | 22/1 |
| Christian | 25/1 |
| Lincoln | 28/1 |
| Pete/Peter | 30/1 |
| Steve/Steven/Stephen | 33/1 |
| Dave/David | 33/1 |
| Matt/Matthew | 33/1 |
| Joseph/Joe | 33/1 |
| Oliver | 33/1 |
Belgium out, Mongolia in
The awkward rollout of Trump’s Board of Peace continues in Davos. Representatives of 19 nations joined the president onstage: Bahrain, Morocco, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and the big one… Mongolia.
However, the Belgian foreign minister had to issue a hurried statement after the White House erroneously included the European nation on its list of signatories.
“We wish for a common and coordinated European response,” said Maxime Prévot. “As many European countries, we have reservations to the proposal.”
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