Jens Spahn has resigned as leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag after facing criticism over his decision to become a father through surrogacy in the United States, despite his party’s opposition to the practice and his own previous defence of Germany’s ban.
Jens Spahn has resigned as chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag following a political controversy over his decision to become a father through a surrogate mother in the United States.
The senior Christian Democratic Union politician announced his departure in a letter to members of the conservative parliamentary group on Saturday, 18 July. According to reporting on the resignation and the contents of his letter, Spahn said that starting a family with his husband, Daniel Funke, had become incompatible with continuing in one of Germany’s most prominent political posts.
The controversy began after Spahn and Funke announced on Wednesday that they had become parents to a son born through surrogacy in the United States. The couple used an American surrogate because surrogacy arrangements are prohibited under German law.
Although becoming the parent of a child born through a lawful arrangement abroad is not itself a criminal offence in Germany, Spahn’s decision prompted accusations of political inconsistency. The debate focused on the contrast between his private actions and positions he had previously taken as health minister and as a senior CDU politician.
Germany prohibits surrogacy under its Embryo Protection Act and Adoption Placement Act. Doctors may not carry out procedures intended to establish a surrogate pregnancy, while agencies are prohibited from arranging such agreements. The woman who gives birth is generally regarded under German law as the child’s legal mother, regardless of genetic parentage.
The CDU has also maintained a clear political position against legalising surrogacy. The party reaffirmed that position at a conference earlier this year, arguing that the practice raises questions about the commercialisation of pregnancy, the rights of the woman carrying the child and the welfare and legal status of children born under such arrangements.
Spahn had previously defended the existing restrictions. During his period as federal health minister, from 2018 to 2021, he opposed moves towards legalisation and supported the argument that surrogacy should not be treated as an ordinary reproductive service.
The resulting criticism therefore concerned not only the arrangement itself but whether a senior politician had made use abroad of a practice that he had opposed domestically. Some CDU representatives argued that this discrepancy had damaged Spahn’s authority to lead the parliamentary group.
Spahn acknowledged the conflict in his resignation letter. He said the difference between his personal decision to have a child through surrogacy and the expectations placed upon him as CDU/CSU parliamentary leader had proved greater than he anticipated.
“One thing has become increasingly clear to me over the past few days: my family is the most important thing to me,” he wrote, before thanking members of the parliamentary group for their work with him. His comments were reported as part of the account of his resignation and the internal pressure preceding it.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is also CDU chairman, reportedly concluded that Spahn could no longer remain in the post. Merz had held discussions with senior party figures as criticism intensified and was reported to have urged his parliamentary leader to step aside.
The Chancellor subsequently described the resignation as the correct and unavoidable decision. The episode presents Merz with the immediate task of finding a new parliamentary leader capable of maintaining discipline across the joint CDU and CSU group and co-ordinating government legislation in the Bundestag.
Spahn had led the group since May 2025, when he succeeded Merz after the latter became Chancellor. The Bundestag’s official parliamentary biography records that Spahn had previously served as one of the group’s deputy leaders between 2021 and 2025.
He has been a Bundestag member since 2002 and served as a parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance before becoming health minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel. He remained one of the CDU’s most recognisable politicians after the party entered opposition in 2021 and later emerged as an important ally of Merz.
His election as parliamentary leader in May 2025 was supported by 91.3 per cent of CDU/CSU MPs, according to the Bundestag’s account of the group’s leadership election.
The resignation does not require Spahn to leave the Bundestag, and there has been no indication that he intends to surrender his parliamentary mandate. He remains a directly elected CDU member representing the North Rhine-Westphalian constituency of Steinfurt I–Borken I.
The political consequences will depend partly on how quickly the CDU and CSU agree on a successor. Alexander Hoffmann, the group’s first deputy chairman, is expected to oversee its work temporarily while the two parties consider a permanent appointment.
The controversy may also renew debate in Germany over whether the country’s surrogacy rules remain workable in an era when prospective parents can enter lawful arrangements abroad. Supporters of the prohibition argue that international surrogacy does not remove concerns about exploitation, financial pressure or competing claims over parenthood. Advocates of reform say the current framework creates legal uncertainty and encourages those able to afford it to seek arrangements in other jurisdictions.
In Spahn’s case, however, the immediate political question was one of credibility. His use of surrogacy did not automatically breach German criminal law, but it placed his personal conduct in direct tension with a policy he and his party had publicly defended.
