Germany’s CDU party chair resigns after using surrogacy to become parent

Jens Spahn had criticised ‘rented wombs’ and his party is strongly opposed to surrogacy, which is banned in Germany

A senior German politician and key ally of chancellor Friedrich Merz has resigned as chair of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party after he and his husband used a surrogate mother to become parents, a practice he has criticised in the past and his party is vehemently opposed to.

Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a policy Jens Spahn refused to relax when he was health minister in 2020, so he and his husband, Daniel Funke, used a surrogate mother in the US.