diff --git a/Lib/multiprocessing/spawn.py b/Lib/multiprocessing/spawn.py
index 364b53f499c..c3adfc14a82 100644
--- a/Lib/multiprocessing/spawn.py
+++ b/Lib/multiprocessing/spawn.py
@@ -248,6 +248,8 @@ def import_main_path(main_path):
         main_module = types.ModuleType(main_name)
         # XXX Use a target of main_module?
         spec = importlib.find_spec(main_name, path=dirs)
+        if spec is None:
+            raise ImportError(name=main_name)
         methods = importlib._bootstrap._SpecMethods(spec)
         methods.init_module_attrs(main_module)
         main_module.__name__ = '__mp_main__'
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f99a0d82f86..93b9dd6884d 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #19946: multiprocessing.spawn now raises ImportError when the module to
+  be used as the main module cannot be imported.
+
 - Issue #17919: select.poll.poll() again works with poll.POLLNVAL on AIX.
 
 - Issue #19063: if a Charset's body_encoding was set to None, the email