Germany's CDU party chair resigns after using surrogacy to become parent

Jens Spahn, a senior German politician and ally of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has resigned as chair of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party. The move came after he and his husband, Daniel Funke, used a surrogate mother in the United States to become parents, despite surrogacy being illegal in Germany and Spahn having criticized the practice in the past.

Spahn, who served as health minister from 2018 to 2021, refused to ease the surrogacy ban in 2020. In 2015, he wrote that as a gay man and a Christian he found it hard to warm to the idea of a "rented womb." However, on Wednesday he welcomed his son Georg, telling Bild newspaper: "Georg is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to put into words."

The announcement drew immediate criticism, with many accusing Spahn of hypocrisy. Marion Rosin, a Christian Democrat in Thuringia and part of the Women's Union, told the BBC that politicians who set standards for others must be measured by them too, and if credibility is gone, resignation is a matter of consequence.

Under Germany's 1990 Embryo Protection Act, surrogacy is punishable with up to three years in prison or a fine. Many German couples therefore opt for surrogacy abroad. In February, when Spahn's surrogate mother was about four months pregnant, the CDU voted to maintain the ban at a party conference.

Spahn, 46, initially defended himself in interviews, saying he had wrestled with the issue for a long time before deciding to proceed. But critics, including members of his own party, were not appeased. Daniel Peters, CDU leader in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, told Bild that Spahn was no longer tenable as chair of the parliamentary group and must resign, calling it "completely unacceptable" to vote one way as a senior politician and act differently as a private individual.

Health spokesperson Janosch Dahmen also said the issue was about double standards and political credibility, not about the child. As calls for resignation mounted, Merz declined to comment on Spahn's future, stating the issue would be discussed at the party's next executive meeting.

On Friday, Spahn told Bild: "One thing is clear to me: For me, and this becomes clearer to me every hour, there is nothing more important than my family." On Saturday, he resigned from his party position, saying he realized that his personal happiness in starting a family with his husband and becoming a father was incompatible with his political office.

In a post on X, Merz described the resignation as "right and inevitable," adding that "credibility is the most valuable asset in politics."