diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-09-06-19-41-01.bpo-28958.x4-K5F.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-09-06-19-41-01.bpo-28958.x4-K5F.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..eb4e206be37d67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2017-09-06-19-41-01.bpo-28958.x4-K5F.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+ssl.SSLContext() now uses OpenSSL error information when a context cannot be
+instantiated.
diff --git a/Modules/_ssl.c b/Modules/_ssl.c
index 761554a7827f4e..5b4cec203addf6 100644
--- a/Modules/_ssl.c
+++ b/Modules/_ssl.c
@@ -2146,8 +2146,7 @@ context_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
         return NULL;
     }
     if (ctx == NULL) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PySSLErrorObject,
-                        "failed to allocate SSL context");
+        _setSSLError(NULL, 0, __FILE__, __LINE__);
         return NULL;
     }