Surrogacy is banned in Germany, a policy firmly backed by Jens Spahn's Christian Democrat party, and several years ago by Spahn, too.

Jens Spahn (R) is accused of adopting double standards as he has opposed legalising surrogacy in the past German centre-right politician Jens Spahn has been accused of double standards, after he revealed he and his husband had become parents using a surrogate mother in the US. Surrogacy is banned in Germany - a policy firmly backed by his Christian Democrat party, and several years ago by Spahn himself. Although there is no German ban on bringing up a child born to a surrogate mother abroad, Spahn, 46, has been criticised by politicians from several parties, including his own. "Politicians who set standards for others must be measured by them too," said Marion Rosin, a Christian Democrat in Thuringia and part of the Women's Union. "If that credibility is gone, resignation is a matter of consequence." Spahn, the parliamentary group leader of the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union, announced on Wednesday that he and his husband Daniel Funke had become parents. "Georg is our greatest joy. This feeling is almost impossible to put into words," he told tabloid newspaper Bild. Then his husband posted a picture on Instagram of the couple with Spahn pushing a pram along with the words "We Are Family". Under the 1990 Embryo Protection Act, surrogacy in Germany is punishable with three years imprisonment or a fine, so Spahn and his partner looked to the US for a surrogate mother.