German politician called on to resign over baby born to US surrogate

German centre-right politician Jens Spann has been charged on two counts after he and his wife revealed they were parents while using a surrogate mother in the US.

Surrogacy is banned in Germany – a policy strongly supported by the Christian Democratic Party and several years ago by Spahn himself.

Although it is not German to raise a child born abroad by a surrogate mother, Spahn, 46, has been criticized by politicians from several parties, including his own.

“Politicians who set standards for others must also be measured by them,” said Marion Rosin, a member of the Christian Democrats and Women’s Association in Thuringia. If this credibility is lost, resignation is a matter of consequence.

Spahn, the leader of the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union parliamentary group, announced on Wednesday that he and his husband, Daniel Funke, are parents.

“George is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to express in words,” Bild told the tabloid newspaper. Her husband then posted a picture on Instagram of Spann being pushed in a pram with his partner, along with the caption, “We are family.”

In the year Under the 1990 Fetal Protection Act, breastfeeding in Germany is punishable by three years in prison or a fine, so Spann and a partner turned to America to find a surrogate mother.

For many German couples, whether same-sex or heterosexual, giving birth abroad has become an important option.

Other EU countries, including France, Spain and Italy, also ban surrogacy, which includes surrogate births when a woman is unable to give birth on her own.

France’s Supreme Court has ruled that children born to biological mothers abroad are legally recognized as the children of their parents.

Meanwhile, Italy has made it illegal for Italians to give birth abroad by 2024 under a policy pursued by Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government.