A senior figure in German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centre-right party has stepped down from his leadership role after facing criticism for using a surrogate mother in the United States, despite the practice being banned in Germany, party sources said.
“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,” Jens Spahn, chairman of the CDU’s parliamentary faction, wrote in a letter to a colleague.
The resignation exposes a sharp divide between Mr Spahn’s private decision and the position of Mr Merz’s CDU, which remains firmly opposed to surrogate pregnancies. At its party congress in February, the party voted most recently to uphold Germany’s ban.
Mr Spahn and his husband recently welcomed a child through a surrogate mother in the United States.
In a podcast interview with the Bild newspaper yesterday, Mr Spahn sought to explain and defend the couple’s decision.
He said he had “wrestled with myself for a long time, including on the issue of surrogacy” before ultimately choosing that path to parenthood.
Mr Merz declined yesterday to comment publicly on Mr Spahn’s decision, saying instead that the party’s national executive committee would discuss the matter.
The chancellor also said he saw “no reason” to revise Germany’s surrogacy laws or shift the CDU from its longstanding opposition to the practice.
Mr Spahn, 46, served as health minister under former chancellor Angela Merkel during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He has since emerged as a leading voice on the CDU’s right-wing flank, particularly through his calls for a tougher approach to immigration.
