US Domestic News Roundup: The experiences that led these U.S. abortion opponents to activism; Police chief who delayed assault on Uvalde mass shooter is put on leave and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

The experiences that led these U.S. abortion opponents to activism

For a Mississippi doctor, it was a glimpse of a fetal arm. For a police officer, it was the treatment of anti-abortion protesters outside a clinic. A Catholic leader was galvanized by the civil rights movement. These and other experiences shaped prominent abortion opponents in their decades-long effort to see the U.S. Supreme Court reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion.

Police chief who delayed assault on Uvalde mass shooter is put on leave

The Texas school district police chief who has come under withering criticism for the police response to the Uvalde school massacre has been placed on administrative leave by the district and could lose his position on the Uvalde City Council.

Chief Pete Arredondo was in charge of the massive, multiagency police response to the May 24 rampage, officials have said, when a man armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle slaughtered 19 school children aged 9 to 11 and two teachers.

Maxwell deserves 30- to a 55-year prison term - U.S. prosecutors

Ghislaine Maxwell should be sentenced to between 30 and 55 years in prison after being convicted of helping the sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, U.S. prosecutors said on Wednesday. Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December by a federal jury on five charges, including sex trafficking, for recruiting and grooming four girls between 1994 and 2004 for sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend.

U.S. Senate poised to step forward on rare bipartisan gun legislation

The U.S. Senate is poised on Thursday for a vote to advance a bipartisan gun control bill that supporters hope will help curb the mass shootings that have rocked the country, in what could be Congress's first new limits on guns in decades. The 80-page Bipartisan Safer Communities Act would encourage states to keep guns out of the hands of those deemed to be dangerous and tighten background checks for would-be gun purchasers convicted of domestic violence or significant crimes as juveniles.

Harris meets Democratic attorneys general as White House gears up for abortion ruling

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet a group of seven Democratic attorneys general on Thursday, a White House official said, to discuss the defense to a major ruling that could dramatically curtail abortion rights in the country. The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the coming days to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion - potentially paving the way to about half of the 50 U.S. states banning or heavily restricting the procedure.

Trump pressure on U.S. Justice Department to be focus of Jan. 6 hearing

Donald Trump's failed efforts to pressure Justice Department officials to overturn his 2020 election defeat will be the topic of Thursday's U.S. congressional hearing investigating his supporters' Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The hearing, set to begin at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), will take the public into the White House on Jan. 3, 2021, when there was a discussion of then-President Trump possibly firing Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and replacing him with Jeffrey Clark, a fervent Trump supporter.

U.S. woman cleared to leave Malta after being refused abortion

An American woman who was denied a request for abortion in Malta after suffering the symptoms of a miscarriage has been allowed to travel to Spain to terminate her pregnancy there, her lawyer said on Thursday. Andrea Prudente, 38, who is 16 weeks pregnant, was on holiday in Malta with her partner Jay Weeldreyer when she started to miscarry a week ago.

Biden administration leans on Tesla for guidance in renewable fuel policy reform

U.S. President Joe Biden rarely mentions electric car maker Tesla Inc in public. But privately his administration has leaned on the company to help craft a new policy to allow electric vehicles (EVs) to benefit from the nation's lucrative renewable fuel subsidies, according to emails reviewed by Reuters. The Biden administration contacted Tesla on its first day in office, marking the start of a series of meetings on the topic between federal officials and companies linked to the EV industry over the months that followed, according to the emails.

Biden asks Congress for gas tax holiday to lower record pump prices

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a three-month suspension of the federal gasoline tax to combat record prices, but opposition from lawmakers within his own party suggests the request may never be met. American families paying much more for gasoline deserve some financial relief, Biden said as he pushed Congress to act while commenting that a suspension of the 18.4 cents per gallon tax was not enough.

With pills and burner phones, Mexican abortion activists prepare for Roe v. Wade overturn

Abril, a 22-year-old college student, has a plan if Roe v. Wade is overturned: use encrypted messages, burner phones and international numbers to ensure women still have the choice to terminate a pregnancy. And maybe save for a bail fund, she joked.

(With inputs from agencies.)