Spahn quits CDU leadership after US surrogacy row

Jens Spahn has stepped down as parliamentary group leader of Germany's governing coalition after facing accusations of hypocrisy for using a surrogate mother in the United States to have a child with his husband.

Commercial surrogacy is banned in Germany under the 1990 Embryo Protection Act, carrying a penalty of up to three years in prison or a fine. Spahn's own Christian Democrat party (CDU) reaffirmed its support for this prohibition as recently as February.

Yet the 46-year-old former health minister had personally backed the ban, rejecting liberalisation efforts in 2020 and stating in 2015 that as a gay man he found the idea of a "rented womb" hard to accept.

Announcing his departure on Saturday, Spahn acknowledged the contradiction. "I have realised that my personal happiness - founding a family together with my husband and becoming a father - is not compatible with my political office," he wrote.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the CDU, called the resignation "right" and "inevitable," noting that "credibility is the highest asset in politics." Alexander Hoffmann will temporarily assume Spahn's duties until a permanent successor is chosen.

The departure removes a dangerous internal rival for Merz at a precarious moment for the centre-right. As journalist Eva Fischer noted in Taz newspaper, Spahn had "made no secret of his ambitions to become chancellor". She wrote: "In politics, the rule is: if someone could pose a threat to you, it's best to get rid of them. Now Merz still had the power to do that."

The controversy also threatens to inflict further electoral damage on the CDU, which is currently struggling in opinion polls ahead of key autumn regional elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right AfD party could secure an outright majority, which would mark the first time a far-right party has held power in a German state since the Second World War.

Writing for Bavarian public broadcaster BR24, journalist Christian Wölfel remarked that Spahn was "flouting the very rights denied to childless couples in Germany." Wölfel added that the scandal was "confirming precisely the narrative that fringe political groups are using to win votes" ahead of these eastern state elections.

The scandal feeds a broader European debate over reproductive tourism and legal double standards. Germany is not alone in its prohibition; France, Spain, and Italy also ban surrogacy. However, legal approaches are diverging across the continent. France's top court ruled this month to legally recognise children born to surrogates abroad, while Italy's government recently made it illegal for its citizens to pursue surrogacy overseas.