pip install failing with no error on private pypi and normal pypi

Question

with and without a pip.ini file my pip install is failing. when running an individual pip install with -vvv I get this as the trace output, the output is the same when trying to pip install -r req.txt. for the individual install I removed the lib version to test and nothing

Collecting absl-py
Getting page https://pypi.python.org/simple/absl-py/
Starting new HTTPS connection (1): pypi.python.org

I'm using python 3.4 and pip 7.1.2

does anyone know why this would be failing ?

Edit: i know both are out of date but this is legacy code thats in maintenance so cant be updated but has a bug that needs fixing

Edit2: i have managed to upgrade pip to 19.1 but the issue still persists. i can install packages outside the venv so assume its not a connectivity issue