{"id":57344,"date":"2026-07-19T08:01:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/57344\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T08:01:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:01:54","slug":"german-lawmaker-resigns-after-backlash-for-having-baby-through-surrogacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/57344\/","title":{"rendered":"German lawmaker resigns after backlash for having baby through surrogacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">Jens Spahn, a top politician in Germany\u2019s governing conservative coalition, has resigned following criticism that trailed his announcement of having a baby through surrogacy in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have realised that my personal happiness\u2014founding a family together with my husband and becoming a father\u2014is not compatible with my political office,\u201d he said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Germany, surrogacy is prohibited and punishable by up to three years\u2019 imprisonment, but raising a child born through surrogacy outside the country is not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 46-year-old politician and his party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), had backed this policy several years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2015, he stated, \u201cAs a gay man and a Christian, I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Spahn, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s CDU, announced earlier this week that he had welcomed a child with his partner, Daniel Funke, through a surrogate mother in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, his announcement was met with criticism from politicians, including his fellow conservatives, who called for his resignation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe balancing act between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as chairman of our parliamentary group has become greater than I anticipated,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Spahn said the intensifying controversy surrounding his decision made him reflect deeply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDespite all clarity and decisiveness regarding the issues, let us always remain human in our tone,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CDU leader, Mr Merz, said Mr Spahn\u2019s decision was \u201cright\u201d and \u201cinevitable,\u201d adding that he would commence the process of appointing the politician\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCredibility is the highest asset in politics,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alexander Hoffmann, the head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) parliamentary group, will take over Mr Spahn\u2019s position, according to German media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While serving as the country\u2019s health minister, Mr Spahn\u00a0had\u00a0rejected calls\u00a0by\u00a0the liberal \u00a0Free Democratic Party (FDP) to relax the ban on surrogacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In February, the CDU reaffirmed its support for a ban on surrogacy.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/gazettengr.com\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 100%;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Artboard-14.png\" alt=\"Banner\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jens Spahn, a top politician in Germany\u2019s governing conservative coalition, has resigned following criticism that trailed his announcement&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45121,480,44366,3439,393,5,7845,42,481],"class_list":["post-57344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-alexander-hoffmann","tag-christian-democratic-union","tag-daniel-funke","tag-free-democratic-party","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-jens-spahn","tag-news","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}