German Health Minister Jens Spahn (R) and his husband Daniel Funke (L) arrive for a state banquet in honor of the queen and crown prince of Denmark at Bellevue Palace in Berlin on November 10, 2021. On Saturday, Spahn, now a member of the Bundestag, resigned his post after the couple used a surrogate in the United States to have a baby. File Photo by Clemens Bilan/EPA
July 19 (UPI) — Jens Spahn, a member of Germany’s Bundestag, has resigned his post amid uproar over his use of a surrogate to have a baby.
The leader of the center-right Christian Democrats in parliament quit abruptly Saturday, The New York Times reported. The move came three days after he announced the birth of his child, Georg, with husband Daniel Funke.
“Georg is our greatest joy,” Spahn, 46, told the German newspaper Bild. “This feeling is almost impossible to put into words.”
The couple faced criticism for the decision to use surrogacy to have a baby because the practice is outlawed in Germany — a law Spahn and fellow Christian Democrats voted to keep in place in February. Spahn and Funke used a surrogate in the United States to welcome their son.
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,” The Guardian reported.
In an appearance on a podcast, Spahn said he struggled with the decision to use surrogacy but ultimately put his family first, the Times reported.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also a member of the Christian Democratic Union, called on Spahn to step down Saturday. Other regional members of the party also sought his ouster.