German politician resigns over surrogacy child controversy

What the report says

Nile Post, citing BBC reporting, says Jens Spahn has resigned as parliamentary group leader for Germany’s governing coalition after criticism over his decision to have a child through a surrogate mother in the United States. Spahn, 46, a senior Christian Democrat and former health minister, had announced earlier in the week that he and his husband, Daniel Funke, had become parents.

The controversy centered on Germany’s ban on surrogacy, a position supported by Spahn’s CDU and previously by Spahn himself. The report notes that while surrogacy is illegal in Germany, parents are not barred from raising a child born through surrogacy abroad. In his resignation statement, Spahn said his family decision and the expectations attached to his political role had become harder to reconcile than he expected, and he linked his departure to concerns about political credibility and public debate.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the CDU, described the resignation as necessary and said a replacement process would begin. German media cited in the report said Alexander Hoffmann, head of the Christian Social Union parliamentary group, would temporarily take over Spahn’s duties.

The episode matters because it places a prominent CDU figure’s private family choice against a legal and party policy he had helped defend. Nile Post/BBC notes the CDU reaffirmed support for the surrogacy ban in February, and that Spahn opposed loosening the law as health minister in 2020. The resignation also comes as Merz faces political pressure before regional elections, with the far-right AfD polling strongly in parts of eastern Germany.