Reuters —
Jens Spahn, a senior member of Germany’s ruling conservatives, resigned on Saturday after having a baby born to a surrogate mother in the United States, a move at odds with his own party’s opposition to surrogacy, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Spahn, 46, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrat party and its sister Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), drew heavy criticism after news emerged that he had become a parent with his husband through a surrogate mother.
Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany, although it is not illegal to bring up a child born of a surrogate mother outside Germany.
“Over the past few days, I have come to realise that my personal happiness – starting a family with my husband and becoming a father – is incompatible with my political office,” Spahn wrote in the resignation letter.
