The leader of German conservative deputies, Jens Spahn, is attacked within his own camp for having had a child with her husband via surrogacy (GPA) in the United States, a practice banned in Germany.
President of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Mr. Spahn must resign for having “deliberately flouted German law”, said a regional leader of the CDU, Daniel Peters, on Friday to the daily Bild.
Mr. Peters considers the discrepancy between his actions in private and the fact of “voting differently as an MP” “totally unacceptable”.
Jens Spahn’s husband announced on Wednesday on social networks the birth of their son Georg, specifying Bild that he was born to a surrogate mother in the United States.
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This “is now an integral part of the family and will accompany Georg throughout his life,” the couple told Bild.
Asked Friday during a joint press conference with Emmanuel Macron, the German Chancellor said that the subject will be “discussed at the next meeting of the CDU presidium”.
He further indicated that he saw no reason to modify the law, nor the position of his party which opposes GPA.
He had previously been content to dodge questions on the subject, declaring that he had been informed by the MP a few days before the birth of his son and had “congratulated” him.
Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany, even if the courts have recognized legal affiliations legally established abroad since 2014 in certain circumstances.
Voices are being raised to denounce the “double standards” behavior of the MP, who did not campaign for the legalization of surrogacy in Germany.
His party, the CDU, decided last February to maintain the ban on surrogacy, when the surrogate mother was already four months pregnant, according to Bild.
The chairman of the CDU elderly voters’ group, Hubert Hüppe, told the magazine The mirror that he was “personally shocked” by the politician’s life choice, despite the party’s “clear position” on the issue.
In 2020, when he was Minister of Health, Jens Spahn even rejected the repeal of the ban on surrogacy.
The controversy goes beyond the CDU. The leader of the Greens Felix Banaszak asked him for explanations, while the government commissioner responsible for the acceptance of sexual diversity, Sophie Koch (SPD), called on Mr Spahn to support a reform of the law of filiation.
For lesbian couples, only the woman giving birth is automatically recognized as a mother, according to current legislation.
