diff --git a/warden_client/warden_client.py b/warden_client/warden_client.py
index f1b9e0cbc8f5a141a582585ff13f0a59693894cf..01535e8fc50147681c223acec2692402f7ca6dad 100644
--- a/warden_client/warden_client.py
+++ b/warden_client/warden_client.py
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ class HTTPSConnection(httplib.HTTPSConnection):
     def __init__(self, host, **kwargs):
         self.ciphers = kwargs.pop('ciphers', None)
         self.ca_certs = kwargs.pop('ca_certs', None)
-        self.ssl_version = kwargs.pop('ssl_version', ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS)
+        self.ssl_version = kwargs.pop('ssl_version', getattr(ssl, "PROTOCOL_TLS", ssl.PROTOCOL_SSLv23))
 
         httplib.HTTPSConnection.__init__(self,host,**kwargs)
 
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ class Client(object):
         self.pause = int(pause)
 
         self.ciphers = None
-        self.sslversion = ssl.PROTOCOL_TLS
+        self.sslversion = getattr(ssl, "PROTOCOL_TLS", ssl.PROTOCOL_SSLv23)
 
         # If Python is new enough to have SSLContext, use it for SSL settings,
         # otherwise our own class derived from httplib.HTTPSConnection is used