diff --git a/docs/sanic/exceptions.md b/docs/sanic/exceptions.md
index cffa219c..4c0888f5 100644
--- a/docs/sanic/exceptions.md
+++ b/docs/sanic/exceptions.md
@@ -17,6 +17,19 @@ def i_am_ready_to_die(request):
 	raise ServerError("Something bad happened", status_code=500)
 ```
 
+You can also use the `abort` function with the appropriate status code:
+
+```python
+from sanic.exceptions import abort
+from sanic.response import text
+
+@app.route('/youshallnotpass')
+def no_no(request):
+        abort(401)
+        # this won't happen
+        text("OK")
+```
+
 ## Handling exceptions
 
 To override Sanic's default handling of an exception, the `@app.exception`
diff --git a/sanic/exceptions.py b/sanic/exceptions.py
index a026575a..e1136dd1 100644
--- a/sanic/exceptions.py
+++ b/sanic/exceptions.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from sanic.response import ALL_STATUS_CODES, COMMON_STATUS_CODES
+
 TRACEBACK_STYLE = '''
     <style>
         body {
@@ -115,6 +117,20 @@ INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR_HTML = '''
 '''
 
 
+_sanic_exceptions = {}
+
+
+def add_status_code(code):
+    """
+    Decorator used for adding exceptions to _sanic_exceptions.
+    """
+    def class_decorator(cls):
+        cls.status_code = code
+        _sanic_exceptions[code] = cls
+        return cls
+    return class_decorator
+
+
 class SanicException(Exception):
 
     def __init__(self, message, status_code=None):
@@ -124,24 +140,27 @@ class SanicException(Exception):
             self.status_code = status_code
 
 
+@add_status_code(404)
 class NotFound(SanicException):
-    status_code = 404
+    pass
 
 
+@add_status_code(400)
 class InvalidUsage(SanicException):
-    status_code = 400
+    pass
 
 
+@add_status_code(500)
 class ServerError(SanicException):
-    status_code = 500
+    pass
 
 
-class URLBuildError(SanicException):
-    status_code = 500
+class URLBuildError(ServerError):
+    pass
 
 
 class FileNotFound(NotFound):
-    status_code = 404
+    pass
 
     def __init__(self, message, path, relative_url):
         super().__init__(message)
@@ -149,20 +168,23 @@ class FileNotFound(NotFound):
         self.relative_url = relative_url
 
 
+@add_status_code(408)
 class RequestTimeout(SanicException):
-    status_code = 408
+    pass
 
 
+@add_status_code(413)
 class PayloadTooLarge(SanicException):
-    status_code = 413
+    pass
 
 
-class HeaderNotFound(SanicException):
-    status_code = 400
+class HeaderNotFound(InvalidUsage):
+    pass
 
 
+@add_status_code(416)
 class ContentRangeError(SanicException):
-    status_code = 416
+    pass
 
     def __init__(self, message, content_range):
         super().__init__(message)
@@ -174,3 +196,20 @@ class ContentRangeError(SanicException):
 
 class InvalidRangeType(ContentRangeError):
     pass
+
+
+def abort(status_code, message=None):
+    """
+    Raise an exception based on SanicException. Returns the HTTP response
+    message appropriate for the given status code, unless provided.
+    :param status_code: The HTTP status code to return.
+    :param message: The HTTP response body. Defaults to the messages
+    in response.py for the given status code.
+    """
+    if message is None:
+        message = COMMON_STATUS_CODES.get(status_code,
+                                          ALL_STATUS_CODES.get(status_code))
+        # These are stored as bytes in the STATUS_CODES dict
+        message = message.decode('utf8')
+    sanic_exception = _sanic_exceptions.get(status_code, SanicException)
+    raise sanic_exception(message=message, status_code=status_code)
diff --git a/tests/test_exceptions.py b/tests/test_exceptions.py
index c557b202..a2b8dc71 100644
--- a/tests/test_exceptions.py
+++ b/tests/test_exceptions.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
 
 from sanic import Sanic
 from sanic.response import text
-from sanic.exceptions import InvalidUsage, ServerError, NotFound
+from sanic.exceptions import InvalidUsage, ServerError, NotFound, abort
 
 
 class SanicExceptionTestException(Exception):
@@ -30,6 +30,11 @@ def exception_app():
     def handler_invalid(request):
         raise InvalidUsage("OK")
 
+    @app.route('/abort')
+    def handler_invalid(request):
+        abort(500)
+        return text("OK")
+
     @app.route('/divide_by_zero')
     def handle_unhandled_exception(request):
         1 / 0
@@ -60,6 +65,7 @@ def test_catch_exception_list():
     request, response = app.test_client.get('/')
     assert response.text == 'ok'
 
+
 def test_no_exception(exception_app):
     """Test that a route works without an exception"""
     request, response = exception_app.test_client.get('/')
@@ -97,6 +103,7 @@ def test_handled_unhandled_exception(exception_app):
         "The server encountered an internal error and "
         "cannot complete your request.")
 
+
 def test_exception_in_exception_handler(exception_app):
     """Test that an exception thrown in an error handler is handled"""
     request, response = exception_app.test_client.get(
@@ -121,3 +128,9 @@ def test_exception_in_exception_handler_debug_off(exception_app):
         debug=True)
     assert response.status == 500
     assert response.body.startswith(b'Exception raised in exception ')
+
+
+def test_abort(exception_app):
+    """Test the abort function"""
+    request, response = exception_app.test_client.get('/abort')
+    assert response.status == 500