A German politician has resigned amid outrage over his purchase of a surrogate baby born in the US, after previously saying he opposed the practice as a “gay man and a Christian”.
Jens Spahn, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union of Germany’s parliamentary group, announced he and journalist partner Daniel Funke had bought the child on Wednesday in a statement to tabloid newspaper Bild, drawing criticism from all sides of politics, including from within his own party.
The 46-year-old was accused of hypocrisy due to his rejection of proposals to relax Germany’s ban on surrogacy in 2020 when he was Federal Minister of Health, and due to his party’s vehement opposition to the practice, leading to his resignation on Saturday.
“In recent days, I have become aware that my personal happiness of starting a family and becoming a father together with my husband is not compatible with my political office,” Mr Spahn said.
“The balancing act between my private decision to have a child through surrogacy and the understandable expectations placed on me as Chairman of our parliamentary group has become greater than I anticipated.”
Surrogacy, which involves a woman bearing a baby on behalf of customers who are unable to have children themselves, can cost upwards of $100,000.
As surrogacy is illegal in Germany and other European countries such as France, Spain and Italy, Mr Spahn circumvented the ban by using a surrogate mother in the US, despite the politician saying in 2015 that “as a gay man and a Christian I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb”.
Mr Spahn is not related to the child as it was Mr Funke, with whom he is in a civil union, who contributed his sperm and fathered the child.
The resignation came after mounting pressure from within the CDU, including from party leader and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who afterwards described the move as “the right one” and “unavoidable”.
Earlier this year, it was revealed another homosexual CDU politician, Hendrik Streeck, paid an American woman to bear a child on his and his partner’s behalf.
Header image: Jens Spahn (right) and Daniel Funke (left) with the baby (Instagram)
The post Homosexual German politician resigns after backlash from buying surrogate baby first appeared on The Noticer.
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