diff --git a/Python/pystrhex.c b/Python/pystrhex.c
index ce456b79f16..38484f5a7d4 100644
--- a/Python/pystrhex.c
+++ b/Python/pystrhex.c
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 #include "Python.h"
 #include "pycore_strhex.h"        // _Py_strhex_with_sep()
 #include "pycore_unicodeobject.h" // _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency()
-#include <stdlib.h>               // abs()
 
 static PyObject *_Py_strhex_impl(const char* argbuf, const Py_ssize_t arglen,
                                  PyObject* sep, int bytes_per_sep_group,
@@ -44,7 +43,7 @@ static PyObject *_Py_strhex_impl(const char* argbuf, const Py_ssize_t arglen,
         bytes_per_sep_group = 0;
     }
 
-    unsigned int abs_bytes_per_sep = abs(bytes_per_sep_group);
+    unsigned int abs_bytes_per_sep = Py_ABS(bytes_per_sep_group);
     Py_ssize_t resultlen = 0;
     if (bytes_per_sep_group && arglen > 0) {
         /* How many sep characters we'll be inserting. */