Germany’s debate surrounding surrogacy has been thrust back into the political spotlight after senior Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician Jens Spahn announced the birth of his son through a surrogate mother, triggering accusations of hypocrisy from political opponents, activists and even members of his own party.
Spahn, leader of the CDU/Christian Social Union (CSU) parliamentary group in the Bundestag, confirmed to the newspaper Bild on July 15, 2026 that he and his husband Daniel Funke had become parents. Their son, Georg, was born in the United States.
The announcement has sparked a national debate as surrogacy remains illegal in Germany, and because Spahn himself has long opposed efforts to legalise the practice.
As health minister in 2020, his department rejected a Free Democratic Party (FDP) push to legalise altruistic surrogacy, telling the Bundestag the ban existed primarily to safeguard the welfare of the child.
In 2015, writing in the magazine GQ, he said that as a gay man and a Christian he could hardly warm to the idea of a “rented womb”.
Under German law, the mediation and medical facilitation of surrogacy arrangements are illegal, prompting some couples to seek services abroad, particularly in certain US states where the practice is legal.
The Embryo Protection Act and the Adoption Placement Act target doctors and intermediaries rather than intended parents or surrogates, meaning Spahn and Funke have committed no criminal offence. Parenthood must be recognised by German authorities after the event, a step that is straightforward where one father is the genetic parent.
Surrogacy in the US costs well over €100,000, according to public broadcaster ZDF, a sum beyond the reach of most German couples.
Spahn is not the first senior CDU politician to face backlash over the issue. On April 16, 2026, fellow CDU MP Hendrik Streeck and his husband Paul Zubeil announced the birth of their son, reportedly via a surrogate in Idaho.
Critics argue that Spahn has benefited from a system unavailable to most Germans while continuing to support a domestic ban.
Marion Rosin, chairwoman of the Women’s Union in the eastern state of Thuringia and a CDU member of the regional parliament, argued that circumventing the German ban through a foreign arrangement violated the spirit of the law and damaged the credibility of the politician.
“Surrogacy is banned in Germany for good ethical reasons,” she told the Funke Mediengruppe, before suggesting that he should resign.
Criticism has also come from outside the CDU. Alice Schwarzer, the feminist writer who founded the magazine Emma, said the ban was justified, arguing that the practice treats both women and children as commodities.
“Human beings are not commodities. Neither a woman as a breeding machine nor a child produced for money should be for sale,” she told the Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur, a Catholic news agency.
Greens MP Paula Piechotta told Bild that Spahn was denying millions of Germans access to a practice he had chosen for himself, while Social Democratic Party (SPD) MP Carmen Wegge told Der Spiegel that those who could afford it took the route abroad.
Spahn has not responded publicly to the criticism since the announcement of the birth. Sources close to him said the decision to go to the US had been shaped by the position of surrogates there, who they said had to be financially independent and already have children of their own.
The same sources said Spahn drew no political demands from his private life and was not seeking to change German law.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who leads the CDU, said Spahn had told him on July 10, 2026 that the couple were becoming parents and that he had congratulated him. He declined to comment further.
A CDU spokeswoman said the existing ban should remain in place, referring to a resolution adopted at the CDU party congress in February 2026 that rejected surrogacy, including in altruistic form.
The controversy also comes amid a wider international debate over surrogacy.
In a report to the UN General Assembly presented on October 10, 2025, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem urged countries to move towards abolishing surrogacy globally, describing it as “a system of violence, exploitation and abuse against women”. She argued that the practice reduces women and children to commodities and encourages their exploitation and abuse.
