A conservative gay German politician is facing calls to resign after he and his husband became parents to a child born through surrogacy in the U.S.
The practice is banned in Germany.
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Jens Spahn, a member of the Bundestag and the parliamentary group leader of the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union, confirmed on Wednesday that he and his husband recently welcomed a baby boy born via a surrogate mother, the BBC reports.
“Georg is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to put into words,” Spahn told the German tabloid Bild. On Instagram, Spahn’s husband posted a picture of the couple, with the pol, 46, pushing a pram along with the caption “We Are Family.”
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Under the 1990 Embryo Protection Act in Germany, surrogacy is punishable by three years in prison. The practice is outlawed in more than a dozen countries in the European Union, including France, Greece, Spain, and Italy, where Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s right-wing government has also criminalized traveling abroad for the practice.
While surrogacy is illegal in Germany, there are no similar restrictions for Germans traveling abroad for it. The practice is legal in the U.S., but increasingly under attack by Christian nationalists in government.
Spahn has publicly supported Christian Democrats’ opposition to commercial surrogacy in the past. While he was health minister in 2020, Spahn ignored calls by the liberal Free Democratic Party to relax the German ban. In 2015, he wrote that “as a gay man and a Christian, I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb.”
The new father was widely condemned by fellow conservatives following his announcement.
“Politicians who set standards for others must be measured by them too,” said Marion Rosin, a Christian Democrat and member of the Women’s Union. “If that credibility is gone, resignation is a matter of consequence.”
Daniel Peters, a leading CDU politician, told Bild that Spahn’s position was “no longer tenable and he must resign.” He described Spahn’s actions as a total disregard for German law.
Spahn’s party colleague and health spokesman Janosch Dahmen said the issue was about a glaring double standard and Spahn’s own political credibility, not about his child.
“Anyone who advocates for rules politically should be able to explain clearly why those rules apparently do not apply to them personally,” Dahmen said.
Felix Banaszak, leader of the Greens party, which is divided on the issue of surrogacy, personally wished Spahn and his husband all the best, but said he should come forward and explain himself, as the ethical issues surrounding surrogacy were “not trivial.”
Spahn is not the first conservative German pol to face accusations of hypocrisy around the issue. Earlier this year, fellow Christian Democrat Hendrik Streeck welcomed a child with the help of a surrogate in the U.S.
As controversy swirled around Spahn, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democrats, told reporters that the issue would be discussed at the party’s next executive meeting.
“On a human level, legally, socially and ethically,” Merz said, surrogacy “moves a lot of people in Germany at the moment.”
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