The former Arkansas governor is open to sending the National Guard to stop women from getting abortions. No, really—that's his plan.

They spent a decade dodging bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. They came home to preserve the peace, during riots and floods. Tomorrow, they'll pick up their machine guns and body armor, put on their camo, and stop women from getting abortions.

That's the vision Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has, at least, for deploying the National Guard.

No, seriously.

A sub-contest is emerging in the most conservative corners of the Republican primary, as candidates vie to present themselves as the contenders who oppose abortion in the most cases and with the most government involvement possible

Huckabee has managed to get to everyone's right on the issue, suggesting he's open to ideas that could make the government's efforts to block abortion more intrusive than ever.

Last month, the governor told a reporter that he was open to the possibility of using the National Guard or FBI to keep women from having abortions.

Using the military to stop abortion would be, uh, historic.

"I will not pretend there is nothing we can do to stop this," he said on the campaign trail in Iowa, the Huffington Post reported.

When asked if he would use those federal resources to stop abortions, Huckabee replied, "We'll see when I'm president," adding, "All American citizens should be protected."

The National Guard is typically brought in by governors to help out with national disasters (think Hurricane Katrina or Sandy) or to maintain order during a riot (think last year's unrest in Baltimore). Once in a great, great while, the troops might be brought in to enforce the law of the land, when local enforcement can't or won't, like in the early days of the civil rights movement in the South.

But, of course, abortion is legal in this country. Which means the idea of sending in the troops to stop the practice is doubly odd. Especially because, as a former governor, Huckabee knows all about deploying the National Guard. (In fact, Huckabee considered himself enough of an authority of the Guard that last year he attacked a fellow Republican, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, for supposedly mis-deploying those troops during the unrest in Ferguson. "His use of the National Guard was disgusting and deplorable," Huckabee said.)

Of course, Huckabee has made several forays into the unusual on reproductive rights. At the Fox News debate last week, he made a controversial legal justification for his opposition to abortion, arguing that the Fifth and 14th Amendments mean abortion should be illegal.