CDU Parliamentary Leader Jens Spahn Resigns Over US Surrogate Mother Controversy

Jens Spahn resigned as chairman of the CDU parliamentary group on Saturday, following the revelation that he and his husband used a surrogate mother in the United States to have a child. Surrogacy is banned in Germany, and the CDU voted in February to maintain the prohibition.

In a letter to colleagues obtained by AFP, Spahn wrote, “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.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the resignation “right and unavoidable,” adding that “credibility is the most valuable asset in politics.” Merz had warned on Friday that the party’s executive committee would discuss the matter and reiterated that he saw “no reason” to change Germany’s laws on surrogacy.

The news, first reported in the German press on Thursday, drew immediate criticism from within the CDU and from opposition parties. Luigi Pantisano of Die Linke accused Spahn of hypocrisy, saying, “The law always applies to ordinary people, but for top politicians, they apparently apply only until they have enough money to go circumvent them abroad.”

Spahn, 46, who served as health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic under former chancellor Angela Merkel, had initially defended his decision in a podcast interview with Bild. He said he had “wrestled with myself for a long time, including on the issue of surrogacy” before deciding to proceed. But on Saturday, he acknowledged that the “balancing act” between his private decision and the expectations of his office had become untenable.

The Green Party’s parliamentary leader, Franziska Brantner, told the Rheinische Post that Spahn’s resignation was long overdue, though she described the surrogacy controversy as “merely the final straw.”

Article and image source: thelocal.de