how to abort on syntax errors

[Josh]

I have a lot of except Exception, e statements in my code, which poses some 
problems. One of the biggest is whenever I refactor even the triviallest 
thing in my code.

I would like python to abort, almost as if it were a compile-time error, 
whenever it cannot find a function, or if I introduced a syntax error. But, 
instead, it merrily proceeds on its way.

Is there some idiom that you use in situations like these?
thanks,
josh