Fairfax Case Alleging School-Assisted Abortions Now in Federal Court

A legal challenge alleging that a Fairfax County Public Schools employee helped minors get abortions without their parents’ consent is now in federal court in a case that hinges on a First Amendment free speech claim.

Fairfax County Public Schools Teacher Zenaida Perez, speaking to supporters and reporters after filing a suit against the school division on Oct. 29, 2025. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)

FCPS teacher Zenaida Perez, plaintiff in the case, is seeking to prove that school officials have defamed her and are in violation of the Virginia Whistleblower Protection Law.  Perez alleged in 2025 that another FCPS staff member assisted minors with seeking abortions. FCPS’s internal probe refuted her claims.

A public statement from Superintendent Michelle Reid claimed that Perez’s allegations are “based largely on statements that were misinterpreted, mistranslated, taken out of context, or in some cases knowingly fabricated.”

A Virginia State Police investigation, launched late last summer by the order of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, remains active as of January 2026. The school system has also submitted materials to members of Congress for a federal inquiry.

She said, they said

Ahead of Virginia’s gubernatorial and House of Delegates elections last fall, Perez accused a fellow school staff member of assisting students in obtaining abortions, and the matter quickly became a Republican political talking point.

Virginia law allows minors to get abortions only if their parents or guardians agree to it or a minor successfully petitions a court. Such petitions are also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, so it’s unclear how the students Perez purported to have gotten abortions would have obtained them.

While the public airing of the allegation and subsequent lawsuit came to light in recent months, Perez had first tried to report matters to Centreville High School administration in 2021 and 2022, the lawsuit revealed.

In August 2025, conservative blog WC Dispatch published the allegations and a note allegedly written by a student who’d been assisted in getting an abortion.

“I was afraid my family would react poorly if they knew about my pregnancy, so I sought the abortion,” the note, translated from Spanish, reads in the court filing.

A previous internal review by FCPS indicated similarities between the handwriting in the student’s letter and Perez’s own; she then admitted that she was the one who actually wrote it.

“(The student) didn’t write it, she was absolutely not well with the writing — she cannot write in English or in Spanish — and she told me she ‘only had 15 minutes for my break,’” Perez said in an Americans United For Life webinar late last year. Perez added she had written the letter based on the student’s dictation while the student was working at a restaurant in Chantilly.

Attorneys from Americans United for Life, the anti-abortion group that hosted the webinar, are representing Perez in her case.

“AUL has filed an amended complaint on behalf of Mrs. Perez, and we are expecting a renewed motion to dismiss the case from Fairfax County’s lawyers,” AUL spokesman Gavin Oxley said Friday.

Perez’s petition to court

Fairfax County Public Schools Teacher Zenaida Perez, center, is surrounded by supporters after filing a suit against the school division on Oct. 29, 2025. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)

Perez’s suit claims CHS officials retaliated against her through disciplinary memos, reprimands, and a suspension. Her medical provider gave her medication for depression and anxiety, the suit stated.

The filing noted the school officials’ alleged retaliation has a “lifelong impact” on Perez emotionally, and added that the defendants’ claims will “be a stain on her record forever, and these allegations may resurface for any teaching position that she may seek in the future.”

The school system remains steadfast in refuting Perez’s claims.

FCPS’s own review uncovered “no credible evidence” supporting Perez’s allegations. This was relayed in materials the school system sent to the U.S. Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

The supplemental statement read that FCPS “remains open to receiving and reviewing any new, pertinent information that may become available,” but concluded that further investigation isn’t necessary at this time.

The statement also accusedPerez of withholding additional evidence when the Centreville High principal initially looked into the alleged student abortions Perez reported to him in 2022.

“While she has claimed to possess evidence of serious criminal wrongdoing occurring within the school and impacting students from vulnerable backgrounds, Mrs. Perez nonetheless waited nearly three years before surfacing the ‘evidence’ she had privately collected, choosing to do so through a sensational social media story she collaborated in producing, which contained numerous unfounded allegations,” the statement read.

Perez, whose case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in the Alexandria division, is seeking a trial by jury and to be awarded $2 million.

AUL spokesman Oxley told The Mercury that the organization and its client are “looking forward” to “prosecuting the case as far as necessary.”

Virginia Mercury reporter Nathaniel Cline contributed to this story. 

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