{"id":11076,"date":"2026-07-20T02:14:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11076"},"modified":"2026-07-20T02:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:14:59","slug":"german-leader-jens-spahn-resigns-over-decision-to-use-surrogate-for-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11076","title":{"rendered":"German leader Jens Spahn resigns over decision to use surrogate for baby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/2981784475139\/2026\/upi_com\/3e87701aecedd9f10cb2e9ec0daf2511\/v1.5\/German-leader-Jens-Spahn-resigns-over-decision-to-use-surrogate.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>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<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 19 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> Jens Spahn, a member of Germany&#8217;s Bundestag, has resigned his post amid uproar over his use of a surrogate to have a baby.<\/p>\n<p>The leader of the center-right Christian Democrats in parliament quit abruptly Saturday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/07\/18\/world\/europe\/jens-spahn-surrogacy-germany.html\" target=\"_blank\">The New York Times<\/a> reported. The move came three days after he announced the birth of his child, Georg, with husband Daniel Funke.\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Georg is our greatest joy,&#8221; Spahn, 46, told the German newspaper Bild. &#8220;This feeling is almost impossible to put into words.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The couple faced criticism for the decision to use surrogacy to have a baby because the practice is outlawed in Germany &#8212; 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.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Spahn wrote that &#8220;as a gay man and a Christian, I find it personally very hard to warm to the idea of a rented womb,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jul\/18\/germany-cdu-party-chair-resigns-surrogacy-jens-spahn\" target=\"_blank\">The Guardian<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/2981784475139\/2026\/1\/3e87701aecedd9f10cb2e9ec0daf2511\/v1.5\/German-leader-Jens-Spahn-resigns-over-decision-to-use-surrogate.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}