CDU Chief Spahn Quits After Surrogacy Secret Exposed Despite Party Ban

Jens Spahn, who publicly condemned surrogacy as renting women's bodies, has resigned as CDU party chair after it emerged he and his husband used a surrogate mother to have a child.

Jens Spahn resigned as CDU party chair on Saturday, July 18, 2026.
Spahn and his husband used a surrogate mother to become parents, a practice banned in Germany.
Spahn had previously attacked surrogacy in public, calling it the use of 'rented wombs.'
The CDU is formally and strongly opposed to surrogacy in its platform.
Spahn's resignation came after the surrogacy arrangement became public knowledge.

Jens Spahn resigned as chair of Germany's CDU on Saturday after it became public that he and his husband had used a surrogate mother to become parents — directly contradicting his own recorded attacks on the practice and his party's firm opposition to it.

Spahn had described surrogacy as the use of “rented wombs,” framing it as the exploitation of women. Surrogacy is illegal in Germany. The CDU has consistently backed that prohibition as party policy.

The resignation was confirmed Saturday. Spahn had served as CDU party chair and is a former federal Health Minister, one of the most prominent figures in German centre-right politics over the past decade.

The disclosure drew immediate attention across German media and within the party. No CDU official had been publicly informed of the surrogacy arrangement before the story broke, sources told the Wail.

Spahn issued no extended public statement beyond confirming his resignation. His husband, lobbyist Daniel Funke, has not commented publicly.

The CDU is expected to move to select a new party chair in the coming days. The timeline for a formal leadership vote has not been announced.