Jens Spahn, 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 Spahn has previously criticized and his party vehemently opposes. Surrogacy is banned in Germany under the 1990 Embryo Protection Act, punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine. Spahn, as health minister in 2020, refused to relax the ban. So he and his husband, Daniel Funke, did what any lawmaker opposed to surrogacy would do: they found a surrogate in the US.

In 2015, Spahn wrote that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb.” Yet on Wednesday, he welcomed baby Georg, telling Bild: “Georg is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to put into words.” The announcement drew immediate accusations of hypocrisy. Marion Rosin, a CDU member in Thuringia, told the BBC: “Politicians who set standards for others must be measured by them too. If that credibility is gone, resignation is a matter of consequence.”

In February, while Spahn’s surrogate was about four months pregnant, the CDU voted to maintain the surrogacy ban at a party conference. Spahn, 46, initially defended himself, telling Bild he had “wrestled with myself for a long time” before deciding to proceed. But critics weren't placated. Daniel Peters, CDU leader in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, called for resignation, saying it was “completely unacceptable” to vote one way and act differently privately. Health spokesperson Janosch Dahmen echoed the sentiment, noting the issue was about double standards, not the child.

As calls mounted, Merz declined to comment, saying the matter would be discussed at the next executive meeting. On Saturday, Spahn resigned, stating: “In recent days, I have come to realise that my personal happiness in starting a family with my husband and becoming a father is incompatible with my political office.” Merz called the resignation “right and inevitable,” adding: “Credibility is the most valuable asset in politics.”