A method for manufacturing an absorbent article includes joining, one longitudinal end portion of a main absorbent body base material to a back-side band base material and another longitudinal end portion of the absorbent body base material to the abdominal-side band base material, folding the main absorbent body base material and overlapping the back-side band base material with the abdominal-side band base material, temporarily joining the overlapped back-side band base material and abdominal-side band base material cutting the temporarily joined back-side band base material and abdominal-side band base material and forming a back-side band base material piece and an abdominal-side band base material piece, and transporting the back-side band base material piece, the abdominal-side band base material piece and the main absorbent body base material in a transport direction with the back-side band base material piece and the abdominal-side band base material piece in a temporarily joined state.