3.2 introduces SSL contexts, which allow bundling SSL configuration options, certificates and private keys into a single (potentially long-lived) structure.
http://docs.python.org/dev/py3k/library/http.client.html

urllib.request.*URLOpener should allow passing an SSL context object, if not already possible.

(I hope you don't mind the multiple similar issues, but I think one separate issue per stdlib module is more manageable)