Jens Spahn quits CDU leadership role over US surrogacy controversy

Jens Spahn, a prominent figure in German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right CDU, resigned as chairman of the party's faction in parliament on Saturday amid controversy over his use of a surrogate mother in the United States, despite Germany's ban on the practice.

In a letter to colleagues, Spahn wrote that he had come to see his personal happiness in starting a family with his husband and becoming a father as incompatible with his political office. He said the balance between his private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the expectations placed on him as parliamentary group chairman had proved harder than he expected.

The CDU is strongly opposed to surrogate pregnancies and most recently voted at a party congress in February to maintain Germany's ban. Merz welcomed Spahn's resignation, saying the decision to step down was right and unavoidable. The chancellor credited Spahn with helping the CDU return to power, but said credibility was the most valuable asset in politics.

Spahn and his husband recently welcomed the child, who was born to a surrogate mother in the United States. News of the birth was reported in German media earlier in the week and drew criticism from within the CDU, including calls for his resignation, as well as accusations of hypocrisy from other politicians.

Spahn initially defended himself in a podcast interview with Bild on Friday, saying he had struggled for a long time with the issue of surrogacy before deciding to have a child that way. Merz had warned on Friday that the CDU's national executive committee would discuss the matter and said he saw no reason to change German surrogacy law or the party's longstanding position.

Opposition lawmakers welcomed Spahn's resignation. Luigi Pantisano, a leader of the hard-left Die Linke, said Spahn's decision to hire a surrogate mother in the United States showed a double standard. He told the Rheinische Post that laws seemed to apply to ordinary people while top politicians could avoid them abroad if they had enough money.

Within the CDU, the regional party chairman in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had called Spahn's decision completely unacceptable. Hubert Hueppe, head of the CDU's group for older members, told Der Spiegel he was personally shocked that Spahn had gone against the party's clear stance. Hueppe said he understood the desire to have a child, including among homosexual couples, but said the debate concerned whether women were being instrumentalised.

Sources close to Spahn told Focus magazine that US rules aimed at protecting women were a decisive factor in the couple's decision to use a surrogate mother there.

Spahn, 46, served as health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic under former chancellor Angela Merkel. In recent years, he became a prominent voice on the CDU's right wing, including by pushing for a harder line on immigration. Franziska Brantner, the parliamentary leader for the opposition Green Party, told the Rheinische Post that Spahn's resignation was long overdue and described the surrogacy controversy as the final straw, while also wishing him well personally.