Jens Spahn resigns after surrogacy controversy over U.S.-born son

Jens Spahn stepped down on 18 July as chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group after pressure over the revelation that he and his husband, Daniel Funke, became parents to a son born to a surrogate mother in the United States. The resignation landed at the center of a sharp clash between private family choices and German public law, with critics accusing Spahn of double standards.

Surrogacy is illegal in Germany under the Embryo Protection Act, which was issued on 13 December 1990 and published on 19 December 1990. The ban has long been enforced as a matter of principle, and the backlash around Spahn focused on the fact that one of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s most senior allies had benefited from an arrangement prohibited at home.

The pressure intensified because Spahn has previously backed that prohibition. When he served as Germany’s health minister, he defended the ban on surrogacy, making the latest disclosure harder for political opponents and some supporters to reconcile with his past position. The criticism was not limited to rival parties. Within the CDU, allies also turned on him, and the episode quickly became a test of whether senior politicians are held to the same standards they defend in law.

The political sensitivity deepened further after Hendrik Streeck, another CDU figure, and his husband, Paul Zubeil, announced in April that they had a son born in the United States. That timing pushed the issue higher up the political agenda and made Spahn’s case look less like an isolated personal controversy than a broader challenge for the party on family policy, reproductive ethics and public accountability.

Spahn’s departure follows mounting scrutiny that began after the surrogacy disclosure became public on 17 July. By the next day, he had stepped down, ending his run as parliamentary group chairman under a cloud that tied his personal life to a law his own party has long defended.