diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 14ecefb23..3abd02ea9 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <artifactId>google-cloud-spanner-jdbc</artifactId>
-  <version>2.17.1-SNAPSHOT</version><!-- {x-version-update:google-cloud-spanner-jdbc:current} -->
+  <version>2.17.2-SNAPSHOT</version><!-- {x-version-update:google-cloud-spanner-jdbc:current} -->
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <name>Google Cloud Spanner JDBC</name>
   <url>https://github.com/googleapis/java-spanner-jdbc</url>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/AbstractJdbcStatement.java b/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/AbstractJdbcStatement.java
index d12678bf2..2c8a923e4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/AbstractJdbcStatement.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/AbstractJdbcStatement.java
@@ -57,6 +57,25 @@ public JdbcConnection getConnection() {
     return connection;
   }
 
+  String maybeAddWhereClause(String sql) {
+    String lowerCaseSql = sql.toLowerCase();
+    if (lowerCaseSql.startsWith("delete") || lowerCaseSql.startsWith("update")) {
+      if (!lowerCaseSql.contains(" where ")) {
+        return sql + " where true";
+      }
+    }
+    return sql;
+  }
+
+  boolean isAllowedDdlStatementInTransaction(String sql) throws SQLException {
+    if (!getConnection().getAutoCommit() && getConnection().getParser().isDdlStatement(sql)) {
+      if (!getConnection().isTransactionStarted()) {
+        return true;
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   private Options.QueryOption[] getQueryOptions(QueryOption... options) throws SQLException {
     QueryOption[] res = options == null ? new QueryOption[0] : options;
     if (getFetchSize() > 0) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcPreparedStatement.java b/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcPreparedStatement.java
index 9ebbc98f5..ae29ea071 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcPreparedStatement.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcPreparedStatement.java
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ class JdbcPreparedStatement extends AbstractJdbcPreparedStatement
       JdbcConnection connection, String sql, ImmutableList<String> generatedKeysColumns)
       throws SQLException {
     super(connection);
-    this.sql = sql;
+    this.sql = maybeAddWhereClause(sql);
     try {
       // The PostgreSQL parser allows comments to be present in the SQL string that is used to parse
       // the query parameters.
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcStatement.java b/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcStatement.java
index 19b325654..655190c57 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcStatement.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/jdbc/JdbcStatement.java
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ public long executeLargeUpdate(String sql) throws SQLException {
 
   private long executeLargeUpdate(String sql, ImmutableList<String> generatedKeysColumns)
       throws SQLException {
-    return executeLargeUpdate(Statement.of(sql), generatedKeysColumns);
+    return executeLargeUpdate(Statement.of(maybeAddWhereClause(sql)), generatedKeysColumns);
   }
 
   protected long executeLargeUpdate(Statement statement, ImmutableList<String> generatedKeysColumns)
@@ -112,7 +112,19 @@ protected long executeLargeUpdate(Statement statement, ImmutableList<String> gen
     checkClosed();
     Statement statementWithReturningClause =
         addReturningToStatement(statement, generatedKeysColumns);
-    StatementResult result = execute(statementWithReturningClause);
+    boolean allowedDdlStatementInTransaction =
+        isAllowedDdlStatementInTransaction(statement.getSql());
+    StatementResult result;
+    if (allowedDdlStatementInTransaction) {
+      getConnection().setAutoCommit(true);
+    }
+    try {
+      result = execute(statementWithReturningClause);
+    } finally {
+      if (allowedDdlStatementInTransaction) {
+        getConnection().setAutoCommit(false);
+      }
+    }
     switch (result.getResultType()) {
       case RESULT_SET:
         if (generatedKeysColumns.isEmpty()) {
@@ -256,7 +268,7 @@ String quoteColumn(String column) {
 
   @Override
   public boolean execute(String sql) throws SQLException {
-    return executeStatement(Statement.of(sql), NO_GENERATED_KEY_COLUMNS);
+    return executeStatement(Statement.of(maybeAddWhereClause(sql)), NO_GENERATED_KEY_COLUMNS);
   }
 
   boolean executeStatement(Statement statement, ImmutableList<String> generatedKeysColumns)