Angela Abstance is the child of Bobby Wood and Susan Myrick, both formerly of Barnwell.  She attended Barnwell public schools and received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Furman University in 1998.  Judge Abstance attended the University of South Carolina School of Law, where she served on the Environmental Law Journal.  She graduated in 2001 and began her general practice of law at the Moore Law Firm in Barnwell, South Carolina, handling civil litigation, real estate, and probate matters.  During that time, she also practiced extensively in Family Court, representing parties in private actions, serving as counsel for parents in abuse and neglect cases, and later serving as the attorney for the Guardian ad Litem program.   In 2008 she went to work for the South Carolina Department of Social Services handling abuse and neglect cases in the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit.  Judge Abstance opened her own practice in Barnwell in 2014, where she focused on Family Law.  Judge Abstance is a certified family court mediator.  She served as a contract attorney for the Commission on Indigent Defense and represented parents in abuse and neglect actions. She was elected to fill the unexpired term of the Honorable Dale Moore Gable on February 7, 2018.

Judge Abstance is married to Robert M. Abstance, III, formerly of Denmark, South Carolina, and they have three children.   She is a member of the First Baptist Church of Denmark, South Carolina.  Judge Abstance enjoys watching football, hiking, traveling, and reading.