diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index c505aee..ed84a5e 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -568,6 +568,9 @@
 Extension Modules
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #9054: Fix a crash occurring when using the pyexpat module
+  with expat version 2.0.1.
+
 - Issue #10003: Allow handling of SIGBREAK on Windows. Fixes a regression
   introduced by issue #9324.
 
@@ -669,6 +672,7 @@
 
 Tests
 -----
+
 - Issue #9628: fix runtests.sh -x option so more than one test can be excluded.
 
 - Issue #9894: Do not hardcode ENOENT in test_subprocess.
diff --git a/Modules/pyexpat.c b/Modules/pyexpat.c
index 389975d..cc62274 100644
--- a/Modules/pyexpat.c
+++ b/Modules/pyexpat.c
@@ -397,6 +397,9 @@
     PyObject *args;
     PyObject *temp;
 
+    if (!have_handler(self, CharacterData))
+        return -1;
+
     args = PyTuple_New(1);
     if (args == NULL)
         return -1;