A senior member of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has stepped down from his leadership position after facing intense criticism over using a surrogate mother in the United States to have a child, despite Germany’s ban on the practice.
Jens Spahn, chairman of the CDU’s parliamentary group, announced his resignation on Saturday, saying he could no longer reconcile his private decision to start a family with the responsibilities of his political office.
“In recent days, I have come to realise that my personal happiness in starting a family with my husband and becoming a father is incompatible with my political office,” Spahn wrote in a letter to colleagues obtained by AFP.
His resignation comes just months after the CDU reaffirmed its opposition to surrogacy, with party members voting in February to maintain Germany’s long-standing ban on surrogate pregnancies.
Chancellor Merz backed Spahn’s decision to step aside, describing it as “right and unavoidable.”
While praising Spahn for helping lead the CDU back into government, Merz said credibility remains “the most valuable asset in politics.”
The controversy erupted earlier this week after German media reported that Spahn and his husband had welcomed a child born through a surrogate in the United States.
The revelation drew immediate criticism from within the CDU, where several members argued that Spahn’s personal decision contradicted the party’s publicly stated position on surrogacy. Opposition politicians also accused him of hypocrisy.
Speaking on a podcast with Bild on Friday, Spahn admitted he had struggled with the decision for a long time before choosing surrogacy.
By Saturday, however, he acknowledged that balancing his private life with the expectations of leading the CDU’s parliamentary group had become impossible.
“The balancing act between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as chairman of our parliamentary group has proven more difficult than I had anticipated,” he wrote.
Opposition lawmakers welcomed the resignation, saying it underscored a contradiction between the CDU’s policies and Spahn’s personal choices.
Luigi Pantisano of the left-wing Die Linke party argued that the case exposed a double standard.
“The law applies to ordinary people, but for top politicians, it seems to apply only until they can afford to bypass it abroad,” he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.
Criticism also came from within the CDU. The party’s regional chairman in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania described Spahn’s decision as “completely unacceptable,” while Hubert Hueppe, who heads the CDU’s senior members’ group, said he was personally shocked that Spahn had acted against the party’s clear position.
Hueppe said he understood that many people, including same-sex couples, wish to have children, but argued the wider ethical concern was whether women were being exploited through surrogacy.
Before Spahn announced his resignation, Merz had indicated the issue would be discussed by the CDU’s national executive committee and reaffirmed that he saw no reason to change Germany’s laws or the party’s opposition to surrogate pregnancies.
Former Health Minister
People close to Spahn told Focus magazine that the couple chose the United States because of regulations they believed offered stronger protections for surrogate mothers.
Spahn, 46, served as Germany’s health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic under former Chancellor Angela Merkel. In recent years, he has emerged as one of the leading voices on the CDU’s conservative wing, particularly on immigration policy.
Franziska Brantner, parliamentary leader of the opposition Green Party, said Spahn’s resignation was overdue, although she described the surrogacy dispute as “merely the final straw.”
“On a personal level, however, I wish him all the best,” she said.
